FCCI for bringing wealthy non-tax payers into tax net

President Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI) Shabbir Hussain Chawla has welcomed Prime Minister's plan to broaden tax base in Pakistan and said that wealthy and potential non-tax payers must be brought into the tax net. In a statement issued here Sunday, he said that ratio of tax payers in Pakistan is even less than Afghanistan which is point to ponder and hence, broadening the tax net is must to strengthen national economy which is also directly linked with the economic survival of Pakistan.
He further said that plugging all loopholes in revenue leakage and broadening of tax net will ultimately benefit the national economy in addition to offloading the existing tax payers who are the main victims of heavy taxation. He said that all chambers should convince the trading community to pay their due taxes as these will contribute in providing much needed revenue for the new and necessary development projects.
"Around 1.2 million people pay taxes in Pakistan while the number of traders paying tax on electricity bills surpasses seven million," he said and added that this gap could be bridged through sincere efforts backed by the government. He also demanded that government should announce amnesty package across the country with mandatory precondition that money declared legal through this scheme would be invested only in the industrial sector.
Meanwhile, FCCI Standing Committee on Tax has decided to expedite work on the compilation of tax proposals for the next Federal Budget, said Imran Sarwar, Vice Chairman Tax Committee. Chairing a meeting of the committee here Sunday, he said that all associations representing different trades have been requested to immediately submit their sector specific proposals in writing so that these could be discussed, evaluated and included in the final budget proposals to be presented to the federal as well as provincial governments.
MD Tahir, Director R&D FCCI, told that president FCCI plans to convene a meeting of all trade associations in which these proposals relating to income tax, sales tax, custom duty and PRA would be discussed in order to evolve consensus on these proposals. The meeting was also attended by Usman Ghani, Haroon Sulaman, and Ghulam Rasool.