AGL 38.54 Increased By ▲ 0.97 (2.58%)
AIRLINK 129.50 Decreased By ▼ -3.00 (-2.26%)
BOP 5.61 Decreased By ▼ -0.03 (-0.53%)
CNERGY 3.86 Increased By ▲ 0.09 (2.39%)
DCL 8.73 Decreased By ▼ -0.14 (-1.58%)
DFML 41.76 Increased By ▲ 0.76 (1.85%)
DGKC 88.30 Decreased By ▼ -1.86 (-2.06%)
FCCL 35.00 Decreased By ▼ -0.08 (-0.23%)
FFBL 67.35 Increased By ▲ 0.85 (1.28%)
FFL 10.61 Increased By ▲ 0.46 (4.53%)
HUBC 108.76 Increased By ▲ 2.36 (2.22%)
HUMNL 14.66 Increased By ▲ 1.26 (9.4%)
KEL 4.75 Decreased By ▼ -0.11 (-2.26%)
KOSM 6.95 Increased By ▲ 0.10 (1.46%)
MLCF 41.65 Decreased By ▼ -0.15 (-0.36%)
NBP 59.60 Increased By ▲ 1.02 (1.74%)
OGDC 183.00 Increased By ▲ 1.75 (0.97%)
PAEL 26.25 Increased By ▲ 0.55 (2.14%)
PIBTL 5.97 Increased By ▲ 0.14 (2.4%)
PPL 146.70 Decreased By ▼ -1.70 (-1.15%)
PRL 23.61 Increased By ▲ 0.39 (1.68%)
PTC 16.56 Increased By ▲ 1.32 (8.66%)
SEARL 68.30 Decreased By ▼ -0.49 (-0.71%)
TELE 7.23 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.14%)
TOMCL 35.95 Decreased By ▼ -0.05 (-0.14%)
TPLP 7.85 Increased By ▲ 0.45 (6.08%)
TREET 14.20 Decreased By ▼ -0.04 (-0.28%)
TRG 50.45 Decreased By ▼ -0.40 (-0.79%)
UNITY 26.75 Increased By ▲ 0.35 (1.33%)
WTL 1.21 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
BR100 9,806 Increased By 37.8 (0.39%)
BR30 29,678 Increased By 278.1 (0.95%)
KSE100 92,304 Increased By 366.3 (0.4%)
KSE30 28,840 Increased By 96.6 (0.34%)

Founders Group at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry has demanded of the government to withdraw withholding tax on bank transactions as it is not only jacking up the cost of doing business but also promoting trust deficit between the government and the business community. While speaking at a meeting on Tuesday, the Group's leaders including Mian Muhammad Ashraf, Sheikh Muhammad Asif, Farooq Iftikhar, Khawaja Khawar Rasheed and Zeshan Khalil said that business community was expecting that withholding tax on bank transactions would be eliminated but no such announcement was made.
They said that withholding tax is being collected forcefully without keeping in view the challenges being face by the business community.
Imposition of withholding tax on banking transactions was a bad decision, they said and added that the business community was already paying income tax, sales tax and various other duties and taxes imposed by the federal and provincial governments. They said that withholding tax on banking transactions is doing more harm than good and continuously affecting the business atmosphere in the country.
They said that business community has rejected withholding tax on banking transactions from the first day but authorities concerned are not ready to realize the ground realities. They said that though expansion of tax net is need of the hour but the government would have to find out new ways to bring the untaxed sectors into the tax net. Measures like imposition of withholding tax on bank transactions are not doing any service to the economy as it has been observed that tax collection machinery has no authentic data to specify difference between filers and non-filers, they added.
Founders Group leaders said that tax on all bank transactions is not only hampering the trade and economic activities but is also tarnishing the soft image of the government. The levy of this tax has forced business community to conduct its monetary transactions in cash that is promoting undocumented economy, they said and hoped that withholding tax on banking transactions would be withdrawn immediately in the larger interest of the industry, trade and economy.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2018

Comments

Comments are closed.