The Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) on Saturday lauded Finance Minister Ishaq Dar for clearing pending refunds of Rs 23 billion, terming it the step which will encourage exporters and taxpayers. The government has fulfilled its promise to the business community of clearing their refund dues where Refund Payment Orders were issued until April 30, 2017, it said.
The business friendly PML-N government has always remained sensitive to the issues faced by the business community arising from stuck up refunds which is encouraging, said Atif Ikram Sheikh, Chairman FPCCI Regional Committee on Industries.
He said that exports have shown growth in the first month of the current fiscal by 10.6 percent while the payment of pending refund claims will boost external trade in the months to come. He said that tax collection has increased from Rs 1946 billion to Rs 3362 billion in last four years which indicates the hard work of the FBR team led by Ishaq Dar.
The government has taken some bold steps to eliminate tax exemptions and brought Rs 323 billion into the system but a lot is yet to be done as tax potential is not less than Rs 6000 billion, he added. The business leader said that efforts are needed to reduce the size of the undocumented economy and increase the tax to GDP ratio up to 15 percent as the size of the GDP has crossed 300 billion dollar mark.
The liquidity problem of the taxpayers has been resolved to some extent and the government should clear all the refund claims as soon as possible and also look into increased cost of doing business which is making our exports uncompetitive in the international market, he said. He called upon increased warmth in relations between tax authorities and taxpayers which is vital for improved revenue generation without which economic growth cannot be achieved.
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