Paris
Paris, London and Berlin have welcomed six new European countries to the INSTEX barter mechanism, which is designed to circumvent US sanctions against trade with Iran by avoiding use of the dollar.
“As founding shareholders of the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX), France, Germany and the United Kingdom warmly welcome the decision taken by the governments of Belgium, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, to join INSTEX as shareholders,” the three said in a joint statement.
The Paris-based INSTEX functions as a clearing house allowing Iran to continue to sell oil and import other products or services in exchange. The system has not yet enabled any transactions.
solve tax issues and improve tax revenue with joint efforts.
The Acting President and Vice President ICCI said that business community was playing key role in the economic development of the country, but carrying out raids by FBR on business premises was hurting the self-respect and tarnishing the image of businesspersons in society, therefore, such approaches should be avoided.
They stressed that to curb the smuggling, the performance of FBR officials posted at borders and ports should be further improved as smuggling was done in connivance with customs officials while raids were carried out at retailers. They said that retailers were only selling goods and they were issued sales tax invoices while payments were made through cross cheque. Therefore, strict checking of importers was required to cope with this issue. The ICCI office bearers said that situation in the federal capital was better but raids by FBR teams in any part of Pakistan on business premises always triggered a wave of harassment in the business community of the country. They said that if FBR has any genuine tax complaint against any businessperson, the department should first take chamber of commerce & industry or market union of the concerned area on board to address such issues with mutual efforts.
The Acting President and Vice President ICCI were of the view that a relationship of trust and confidence between the tax collectors and taxpayers was needed to achieve better results for the economy. They hoped that FBR would take more positive initiatives to build a relationship of partnership with business community so that with joint efforts.—INP