Aisam to address House of Commons

Aisamul Haq Qureshi. PHOTO: FILE

KARACHI: Before starting his campaign at Wimbledon this month, Pakistan tennis ace Aisamul Haq Qureshi is preparing to receive the biggest accolade of his off-court career.

He will be addressing the British and UK-based Pakistani dignitaries at the House of Commons in Westminster for two hours on June 10.

His agenda will be to promote peace through tennis for his ‘Stop War, Start Tennis’ foundation, in which he will be emphasising on bridging cultural gap through sports in the international community.

The country’s only tennis athlete to play at the ATP circuit was invited by Speaker John Bercow, who praised Aisam for his role as an ambassador for youth and sportspeople all over the world.

“This is the biggest off-court accolade for me,” Aisam told The Express Tribune. “It’s an honour as a Pakistani to speak for my foundation at the House of Commons and get a chance to talk about our work.

“The speaker of the house proposed that I should address the dignitaries, and I’m extremely grateful for that. My focus will be to promote Pakistan’s soft image.”

The Lahore-based player admitted that he was anxious to put his best foot forward at the important occasion.

“My friends and family will be there and I’m a little nervous. I want to make sure that my speech makes an impact.”

Aisam has been involved with the United Nations, Pakistan Red Crescent Society and has also received the 2002 and 2010 Arthur Ashe Humanitarian Awards by the ATP Tour Inc.

Aisam also engages in the distribution of sport-specific equipment among amputees and disabled tennis players, and plans to donate wheelchairs to Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan and Cambodia.

Seeking redemption at Wimbledon

Aisam said that his second-round exit at the French Open men’s doubles was unexpected for him, but he wants to make up for the loss in Wimbledon.

“I was also unable to play the mixed doubles because of a knee-injury, but now it’s healing.

“I want to make up for the French Open defeat as well. Wimbledon is also special because grass is my favourite surface.

Diego Costa passes Chelsea medical

The Stamford Bridge club are poised to finalise the €43 million [£35m] signing of the Atletico Madrid striker, after agreeing the terms of the deal

By Wayne Veysey

Diego Costa has completed a medical at Chelsea and is now on the verge of completing a €43 million [£35m] move from Atletico Madrid.

Goal revealed early last month that a deal worth £75m, including transfer fee and salary, was finalised at a meeting in London less than 24 hours after Costa's penalty helped Atletico Madrid to eliminate the Blues from the Champions League.

	CHELSEA LATEST
25/1	Diego Costa is 25/1 with Paddy Power to be top scorer at the World Cup

The Brazil-born striker, who is a member of the Spain squad preparing for the World Cup, has long been identified by Mourinho as the player to provide a more regular supply of goals than Fernando Torres, Samuel Eto’o and Demba Ba were able to contribute last season.

Chelsea will pay around €43m for the striker, although a significant portion of the transfer fee includes agents' fees.

The move will also more than triple the wages of Costa, who is believed to earn around £50,000 a week at the Vicente Calderon Stadium. Chelsea will hand the 25-year-old a five-year contract worth £150,000 a week.

As reported by Goal in April, it had long been the plan of the west Londoners to confirm the deal before the World Cup, where he is expected to lead the line for Spain if he can recover from the hamstring injury that restricted him to just a short run-out in Atletico’s recent Champions League final defeat to Real Madrid.

Representatives of the Londoners have held a series of meetings with Costa's camp in recent months and the set of talks around the two clubs' Champions League second-leg showdown closed the deal.

Costa emerged as Chelsea's top centre-forward target following an outstanding campaign for Atletico, who won La Liga as well as finishing Champions League runners-up.

The 25-year-old scored 36 times in 50 matches for his club in the recently completed domestic season and his 27-goal league haul was third only to Cristiano Ronaldo (31) and Lionel Messi (28).

Chelsea were keen to trigger the Brazil-born forward's release clause in January, when he was also being closely monitored by rivals Arsenal, but the player did not want to leave in mid-season.

Mourinho has made no attempt to hide his desire to recruit a blue chip centre forward amid doubts over the futures of Torres, Eto'o and Ba. At least two of the trio are expected to leave in the summer, while Romelu Lukaku will hold talks with Chelsea chiefs this summer following a season-long loan at Everton.

Chelsea have been active in the transfer market following the completion of the domestic season.

The Londoners have agreed a deal with Paris Saint-Germain to sell David Luiz for an initial €49m [£40m] although the French champions have yet to officially confirm the Brazilian’s arrival.

Mourinho is also looking for a new left-back and a new central midfielder following the departures of Ashley Cole and Frank Lampard. Chelsea’s top midfield target is Juventus’ Paul Pogba and they are also monitoring the situation of Cesc Fabregas.

Hazard future will be sorted after World Cup, says father

The Belgium international has been linked with a big-money transfer to Paris Saint-Germain but his father says there will be no transfer updates during this summer's tournament

Eden Hazard will make a decision on his Chelsea future after the World Cup in Brazil, according to the player's father.

The Belgium international has been heavily linked with a move to Paris Saint-Germain, who have already agreed a deal for Blues team-mate David Luiz, while the French champions' coach Laurent Blanc has hinted at a bid for the 23-year-old winger.

However, Hazard revealed on Tuesday what number jersey he will be donning next season, saying in a statement: "I am very pleased to be able to wear the No.10 for Chelsea.

"It is my favourite number and is one I am used to wearing for the national team, as well as the one worn by some of my heroes from when I was a kid, like Zinedine Zidane.

"I hope it brings me a lot of luck in the future and I look forward to the fans seeing me in it next season."

And Thierry Hazard claims there will be no transfer updates during the World Cup, as his son looks to guide Belgium to glory in Brazil.

“Eden? There is nothing yet. Every day I read new information,” he told Sudpresse. “Eden just wants to focus on the World Cup.

“There will be no news during the tournament.”

Van Gaal interested in Strootman, says agent

The new Manchester United coach included the Roma star on his six-man summer shortlist, but the player's representative says any sale would be decided only by the Serie A side

The agent of Kevin Strootman says Louis van Gaal is interested in the Roma midfielder, though there has been no official approach from Manchester United and the Italian capital club will resist any sale.

The new United boss included the 24-year-old is his six-man shortlist of desired transfer targets, but is currently sidelined with a serious knee injury until the autumn.

Strootman and Van Gaal have built up a relationship through the Netherlands national setup, but agent Chiel Dekker insists any sale would only be sanctioned should Roma see fit and not the player himself.

"He won’t be back playing until autumn - that’s the time schedule at the moment," Chiel Dekker told The Guardian. "He is of interest to Louis van Gaal but not related to Manchester United at this point."

When probed as to whether he would be of greater interest in the future, he added: "[He] could be. But he’s in Rome and he had a terrific season. There has been nothing between the clubs or between Louis and Kevin - they know each other and like each other but at this stage its not related to Man United.

"Roma do not want to sell. The first thing is its all between [the] clubs. And it's also a very difficult decision because he has to choose between a fantastic club in Rome, a club that bought him and supported him while he was injured and [then] you have his personal coach of the national team at United.

"The clubs have to decide. He’s very happy at Rome, he’s happy to stay because they will play in the Champions League next season, and he is happy to recover from his injury, so at this stage we are not part of any discussion.

Pique: Barcelona don't appreciate Fabregas

The defender says Barca have not shown his in-demand club and international team-mate the respect he deserves since re-joining them from Arsenal

Gerard Pique has criticised Barcelona for the way they have treated team-mate Cesc Fabregas, insisting that the club don't appreciate him as much as they should.

The midfielder has failed to cement himself as a key player in the first-team of the Catalan giants since he re-joined them from Arsenal back in 2011.

This summer, Fabregas has been linked to a move back to England, with Manchester City, the Premier League champions, already preparing a €37 million bid for the Spain international, while the Gunners are also interested.

Pique hopes his Spain team-mate will ignore the advances of his Premier League admirers and remain with Barca, but admits he feels the club have not shown Fabregas the respect he deserves.

"I really like Cesc and I know he is going through a tough time because the club don't appreciate him as much as they should," the defender said at a press conference.

"He is one of those players who would be first-choice at any other club in the world, the star of the team.

"Despite that, he is finding it harder at Barca. I don't know what he is going to do; we haven't spoken about that.

"I hope he stays, because if you look at his stats this season, he is our highest-scoring midfielder and the one with the most assists. Of course I want him to stay with us."

For less than 12 months: Proposal put forward to increase Capital Gains Tax to 12.5%

Tax not applicable on sale of stocks after holding period of 2 years.

KARACHI: 

The government has proposed to increase the capital gains tax (CGT) rate on the trade of securities with a holding period of less than 12 months by 2.5% in 2014-15.

Addressing the budget session on Tuesday, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar proposed that the CGT rate on the sale of shares within a year of their purchase should be increased to 12.5% while the hike on the sale of stocks with a holding period of more than 12 months, but less than 24 months, should be 10%.

CGT will not be applicable to the sale of stocks after a holding period of two years, Dar proposed.

CGT is calculated on the basis of the amount that exceeds a share’s purchasing price. This means an investor will be required to pay Rs1.25 in CGT in case he sells a share for Rs110 within a year of buying it for Rs100.

Contrary to the general perception, CGT applies to investors, not brokers. Increasing the CGT rate is expected to discourage investors from active buying and selling of shares, thus reducing overall stock market liquidity.

In the outgoing fiscal year, the CGT rate on the sale of securities is 10% for the holding period of less than six months and 8% for the holding period of six to 12 months.

Originally, the CGT rate applicable to shares with a holding period of less than six months was due to increase from 10% in 2012 to 12.5%, 15% and 17.5% in the following years. There was no CGT on the sale of securities after holding them for a year.

However, the government kept the rate unchanged at 10% for the last two years. It meant the CGT rate was supposed to go up by 7.5% to 17.5% in one go in 2014-15. But instead of raising it substantially at once, the government has proposed to increase it by 250 basis points for 2014-15.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, Topline Securities CEO Mohammad Sohail said the stock market is likely to react positively to the less-than-expected increase in the CGT rate.

Similarly, in a research note issued to its clients on Tuesday, KASB Securities said the reduction of the CGT rate from the originally proposed 17.5% to 12.5% constitutes ‘considerable lowering’ and will be received positively by local domestic investors.

The CGT collection in July-April remained Rs1.5 billion. The National Clearing Company of Pakistan (NCCPL) collected Rs1.2 billion in CGT during 2012-13 from individual investors, brokers and corporate entities. The NCCPL is not authorised to collect CGT from mutual funds, banks, non-banking finance companies, insurance companies and modarabas, as they pay their CGT directly to the FBR.

Higher advance tax on interest income, dividends

The finance minister proposed that 5% additional advance tax should be deducted from the payment of dividends and income in case the recipient is a non-filer of income tax returns. Later on, they can claim adjustment of the additional tax paid in case they file their returns, he said.

However, the additional tax on income will not be deducted if someone’s total income on interest is less than Rs500,000, it is proposed.

Foreign institutional investors

Currently, foreign institutional investors are not required to file their returns nor are their taxes on capital gains collected. The budget envisages that foreign institutional investors be brought under the tax regime, thus broadening the tax regime.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 4^th, 2014.

Telecom receives much-needed relief

FED removed, withholding tax reduced by 1%. PHOTO: FILE

KARACHI: In a move that will provide the much-needed relief to the heavily-taxed telecommunication sector, the government withdrew federal excise duty (FED) on telecom services from provinces already charging general sales tax (GST) and reduced withholding tax by 1 percentage point.

“In order to simplify the tax regime, it has been decided to withdraw FED from those provinces which have imposed GST on telecom services,” Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said in his budget speech.

This reform in the tax regime is in line with expectations of the telecom sector that had been lobbying for a centralised tax regime to avoid double taxation – the telecom sector was previously paying a whopping 19.5% GST and as much FED to provinces and federation respectively.

For provinces where no GST is charged, the government has reduced the FED from the current 19.5% to 18.5%, according to the draft of Dar’s  speech. However, this 1% reduction in FED is far from the industry’s recommendation of reducing the same by 2.5%.

Another tax benefit to the telecom sector came in the form of reduction in Withholding Income Tax on telephone services. The finance ministry reduced the advance income tax on telecom services from the current 15% to 14% – this also disregards the recommendations of the telecom lobby that had proposed to reduce the withholding tax by 5% to 10%.

In addition to the aforesaid relaxations, the finance ministry – in accordance with the already-announced policy – also proposed to reduce the corporate tax rate by one percentage point. The corporate tax rate shall be 33% for FY2014-2015, Dar informed in his speech.

Telecom sector has been contributing significantly to the national exchequer – cellular mobile companies, alone, paid $5.4 billion in taxes in the last five years, at an average of over $1 billion a year. Besides that, four of the five cellular mobile operators (CMOs) functioning in the country have invested $1.1 billion earlier this year by purchasing licences for 3G and 4G mobile internet services that have already started to roll out.

Though not all of the telecom sector’s recommendations were accepted by the finance ministry, whatever relief is given to the sector would be welcomed by the industry.

Retail sector

The finance ministry also proposed to bring – the largely undocumented – retail sector under the tax net by making it compulsory for all retailers to obtain their national tax number (NTN) while seeking electricity and gas connections for their businesses.

“Because of a variety of reasons, most of the retailers are still not under the tax net,” Dar said. “After carefully studying the issue, we’ve concluded that most of the retailers are willing to pay their due share of taxes but they want a simple and easy method of doing so,” he said.

The finance ministry, therefore, introduced a two-tier Simplified Sales Tax Regime for Retailers and categorised the retailers accordingly.

The first-tier comprises retailers who operate as part of national and international chain stores, operate in air-conditioned shopping plazas, have [point-of-sale] machines for credit or debit cards, or have monthly electricity bills in excess of Rs50,000, according to the draft of Dar’s  speech.

“These retailers will be required to pay GST in the normal regime and to keep electronic cash register of approved-specifications in order to record their transactions,” the finance minister said.

All remaining retailers will fall in the second tier.

For tier II retailers, the ministry would introduce a mechanism for payment of sales tax through the retailers’ electricity bills, the minister said. “Thus, retailers having electricity bills of less than Rs20,000 in a month shall be charged only 5% of the bill as sales tax on retail sales while those with higher bills shall be charged 7.5% as sales tax on retail sales.”

The finance ministry proposed to link the utility bills of retailers with their NTN, which would help the government in tracing the tax record of retailers – both the already-established players and the new entrants.