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Apcea chief hails decision on payment thru cheque

RECORDER REPORT

FAISALABAD: All Pakistan Cloth Exporters Association (APCEA) Chairman Mian Naeem Omer has hailed the finance minister's decision to postpone the condition of payment through cheque of amount above Rs 50,000 to suppliers by the exporters.

In a statement issued here on Sunday, he said the exporters appreciated the fact that the Federal Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz has responded urgently to their demands and has deferred the conditionality of payment through cheque by six months.

The interim period, he said, would enable the businessmen to set out the matter and the difficulties being encountered by them in this process.

Mian Naeem Omer also drew the attention of the minister to the fact that the sales tax chain should be completed in all sector so that there is no lacuna left in the sales tax net. APCEA chairman said that power loom owners were the weakest link in this chain and deserve special and favourable treatment.

He said the power loom owners were agreed that if they were to be brought into the sales tax net, they should be given relief from income tax and turnover tax. Then they would be willing to come into the tax net.

Mian Naeem Omer lauded the efforts of Mian Mehmood Ahmed, Acting Chairman of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) in taking up this issue with the finance minister persistently and helping to get it solved in the larger interest of the national economy and exports of the country.

The Apcea chairman also appealed to the finance minister not to waste interim time in irrelevant details but to settle the matter with the power loom owners and yarn traders on urgent basis so that the modalities of the process and law would be implemented well ahead of the time by July 1.