ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has called a meeting of businessmen on Monday to review implementation status of the agreement regarding withholding tax on banking transactions.

The agreement was reached at a meeting of the 19-member committee constituted by finance minister on July 8. It was scheduled to hold a follow-up meeting ahead of Eidul Fitr.

An official of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) told Dawn that the proposed meeting was re-scheduled on the request of the business community.

The government imposed 0.6 per cent withholding tax on banking transactions from July 1, 2015.

However, the tax was later halved to 0.3pc through a presidential ordinance issued on July 9 on the demand of the business community.

As per decision, the 0.3pc rate will be reverted to 0.6 pc for non-filers af ter September 2015.

FBR spokesperson Shahid Husain Asad told Dawn that business community has complained about some procedural issue that arose after the imposition of the new tax.

These issues are related to turnover tax, minimum tax, and sales tax liabilities of the companies, he added.

It has been observed that several big companies have also established small companies. After the imposition of the said tax, now it becomes binding on all companies to file their income tax return for availing the lower tax rates. The spokesperson said the meeting will discuss and finalise modalities of the tax and its collection.

Under the agreement, the list of filers will be updated every 24 hours. The tax does not apply to filers of income tax returns.