ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has exempted the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)’s enterprises of the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) from the minimum tax for the financial year of 2021-22 – starting on July 1, and onwards.
Presenting the national budget in the parliament on Friday evening, Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin said the SEZs were a key project of the mega CPEC project.
The Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) government earlier unveiled Rs 8.4 trillion federal budget for the fiscal year 2021-22. Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin claimed the government steered the economy out of crisis and put it on the growth trajectory.
“The SEZs are a key project of the mega CPEC project. The SEZ enterprises are already exempted from tax however, under the law, they are still liable to pay minimum tax on their turnover which was causing hardship to the investors. Now they will be exempt from the minimum tax also,” he said.
Tarin said the government had set its priorities of implementing the CPEC projects, besides constructing and operationalizing the SEZs under CPEC during the upcoming fiscal year. He said the PTI government has showed its commitment to speed up the projects under CPEC.
“So far 17 mega projects have been completed at a cost of $13 billion while 21 more projects of $21 billion are in the pipeline,” he said. Tarin added that 26 projects valuing $28 billion of strategic nature were also in planning stage.
