ISLAMABAD: The stone crushing industry called off its strike on Saturday after successful negotiations with Federal Minister for Finance Hammad Azhar, who directed the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to resolve the industry’s tax related issues immediately.
The finance minister issued these directives in a meeting with a delegation of senior members of Stone Crushing Associations (SCA), led by the Minister for Labour and Human Resource, Punjab Ansar Majeed Khan at the Finance Division.
During the meeting, SCA members informed the finance minister about matters related to taxation, especially sales tax and requested to streamline the whole process by removing anomalies to facilitate the stone crushing industry across the board.
Azhar directed the tax authority to hold consultative sessions with the representatives of the SCA and work out modalities for smooth enforcement of taxation benchmarks with sub-categories after evolving consensus among key stakeholders.
He said the stone crushing is of fundamental importance as it was a source of building blocks for the construction and reiterated the government’s all-out support in promoting the construction industry, which he said triggered an impressive growth underpinning V-shape recovery amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
