The federal government from next budget would remove the general sales tax (GST) under Central Excise Mode (CEM) on banking, telecommunication, insurance etc, as the National Finance Commission (NFC) has defined the three sectors as services and not goods.
Also, the federal government, with the consensus of all stakeholders of the 7th NFC Award, has devised a formula to determine the level of poverty and backwardness so as to distribute 10 percent allocated share of the divisible pool under the same head.
“The federal government would remove excise on telecommunication, banking, insurance etc from next budget,” Dr Kaiser Bengali, Sindh’s representative in the NFC told the Sindh Assembly in a presentation on “Decisions: 7th NFC Award”.
Dr. Bengali told the provincial legislature, which assembled at Assembly Secretariat under the chairmanship of Speaker Nisar Ahmed Khuhro wearing the traditional Sindhi Cap, that the NFC had recognized that the GST on services was a provincial subject under the constitution and the provinces may collect this tax if so desired.
