ISLAMABAD: Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) President Sheikh Amir Waheed Tuesday said the government should cut tax rates in the forthcoming federal budget because it would help in expanding tax base, improving tax-to-GDP ratio and enhancing tax revenue of the country.
He was talking to MPA Raja Hanif Advocate during his visit to Chamber House here, a press statement said.
Zubair A Malik Chairman Founder Group, Khalid Chaudhry, Dildar Abbasi, Iftikhar Sethi, Ashfaq Chatha, Muhammad Faheem Khan, Saifur Rehman Khan, Nisar Langa and others were also present at the occasion.
Sheikh Amir Waheed stressed that in the coming budget, the government should also abolish super tax as there was no further justification for it.
He proposed that in the next budget, the government should reduce GST to single digit level that would provide significant relief to the common man, reduce cost of doing business and give boost to business activities.
He said the prevailing withholding tax regime had made taxpayers of private sector as withholding agents for FBR due to which business community had to spend sufficient time on collection of WHT for the tax department.
He urged that in the next budget, the government should streamline WHT regime and assign the responsibility of collecting WHT to FBR officials so that business community could fully focus on promoting business activities.
ICCI Senior Vice President Muhammad Naveed said the average rate of tax on corporate income in the region was less than 23 percent while in Pakistan due to multiplicity of taxes including 2 percent workers’ welfare fund and 5 percent workers’ participation fund, average tax rate on corporate income went up to 38 percent, which was not justified.
He said in the next budget, the government should bring down average tax rate on corporate income that would encourage new investment and strengthen corporate sector in the country.
Speaking at the occasion, MPA Raja Hanif Advocate supported the proposals of ICCI office bearers for reduction in tax rates and stressed that the government should finalize budget proposals in consultation with private sector.
He said business community was playing key role in the economic development of the country and their key issues needed to be resolved on priority.
He assured that he would take up the highlighted issues with relevant authorities for redress.
Comments
Comments are closed.