Pakistan-China Islamabad: A Chinese company building a 720-megawatt hydropower generation complex on the Jhelum River has said it is now facing trouble and delays in obtaining advance tax exemption orders at import stage from the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for the last few months, media reports said.
In a letter to CPEC Authority chairman Asim Saleem Bajwa, the Karot Power Company Ltd (KPCL) complained that the FBR authorities at the Karachi Port have rejected the firm’s exemption application for its three shipments without giving any reason, reports Dawn News.
The rejection of the application without any compelling reason and justification clearly showed mal-intent on the part of the authorities, the KPCL alleged as quoted by the newspaper.
The exemption application was rejected on July 28. “… (since the) company is unable to get clearance in (the) absence of (the) exemption orders (it) has to bear not just the demurrage costs but also suffer a significant delay in project completion,” the letter as quoted by Dawn News.
The company claimed that its income tax was exempted pursuant to clause 132 of Part-I of second schedule to the Income Tax Ordinance 2001 as it is executing the project under the Power Policy of 2002. “The company is importing equipment for the project on a regular basis… and has been applying to the FBR for exemption certificates from paying income tax on imports separately for each bill of lading.”
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