ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information and Broadcasting Qamar Zaman Kaira Tuesday clarified that the Reformed General Sales Tax (RGST) would not be imposed on food items, lifesaving drugs, and education sector. Talking to newsmen at National Broadcasting House here, he said food items like wheat, rice, pulses, vegetables, fruit, and edible oil would remain exempt of this tax.

The minister explained that the export industry would also be exempt from levy of the RGST to the extent of products meant for exports but the items being consumed in the local market would come under the net of the RGST.
He said that as the farming sector now enjoys better facilities, it has been decided that the RGST would be applicable to agricultural inputs like fertilisers, pesticides and agricultural machinery.

He also pointed out that the common man would benefit from the reduction of GST rate, which ranges from 17 to 25 per cent at the moment.  Kaira added that currently there is 17 per cent GST on POL products/electricity and with the introduction of RGST the rate of tax on them would come down by 2 per cent to benefit the consumer.
Similarly, he said, tax rate is also different on imports and introduction of uniform rate of 15 per cent would result in reduction of their prices for the consumers.
The information minister also clarified that the 10 per cent flood tax would be on the amount of income tax and not the taxable income of an employee.
He said flood tax would be a one-time tax for six months and the Government would get a revenue of about Rs31 billion through this levy.  Similarly, it would earn Rs11 billion from increase in the rate of Federal Excise Duty on luxury goods, cosmetics, and cigarettes and that too up to June next year.-NNI

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