Sugar exports to Tajikistan exempted from KP development cess

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has exempted sugar exports to Tajikistan from infrastructure development cess (IDC), after the Central Asian Republic requested Pakistan for this purpose.

The development came after the Tajikistan prime minister sent a letter to the federal government to make his country’s imports less expensive.

In Pakistan, the 18th Amendment has empowered the provinces to collect different taxes or levies. Hence, both Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab have introduced IDC.

According to the documents available with HUM News, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cabinet approved the move on Saturday.

Read more: Govt claims vs reality: sugar still selling at Rs180 per kg

During a meeting, the special finance secretary informed the meeting that Islamabad had sent the aforementioned letter to the provincial government, in which it was requested that the 2 per cent IDC levied on 40,000 metric tons of sugar exports should be withdrawn.

The special secretary told the provincial cabinet that the IDC collected in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was collected from the vehicles using the roads in the province for the construction and maintenance of the same infrastructure.

For this objective, the provincial government had introduced the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Infrastructure Development Cess Act in 2022.

After necessary deliberations, the provincial government decided to exempt the sugar imports to Tajikistan from the 2 per cent IDC for a period of four months.