Narrow tax base should be broadened immediately to generate much needed revenue for the development of Pakistan and revival of national economy, said Engr. Suhail Bin Rashid, President Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI). He was addressing a seminar on 'Role of Faisalabad Chamber in the development of national Economy'. This seminar was organised by Department of Banking and Finance of the Government College University here today.
He lamented that out of 200 million population the net tax payers are only 0.8 million. He said that with this number of taxpayers were cannot make progress. He said that we should promote tax culture but making radical changes in our taxation system and making it business as well people friendly. "We should also convince and educate people to contribute their share in national development voluntarily and without any coercive measures by Tax department", he said and added that FCCI was regularly holding seminars and workshops for the education of business community. Our objective is to persuade them to pay tax and contribute towards national development as a responsible as well as respectable citizen of Pakistan. He further said that some important segments of society are still exempted from income tax. These sectors should also be brought within tax net and in this connection Government should take immediate and bold steps to recover tax from all and every sector without any discrimination.
He pointed out energy crisis as yet another hurdle in the national development and said that by ensuring adequate energy to industrial sector we could increase our gross production and thus increase exports and earn sufficient foreign exchange for the country.
During Question Answer session, President FCCI said that Faisalabad was the second major revenue generating centre of the country but it was not getting sufficient funds for the improvement of its infrastructure. He quoted his meetings with CM Shahbaz Sharif and said that he has assured to provide additional funds for the development of this mega city. He hoped that new projects would be initiated very soon including up gradation of Faisalabad Airport and construction of new Universities. He said that FCCI was playing its role as a bridge between Government and business community.
At present we are busy in preparing budget proposals for the budget of next financial year.
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