Businessmen urged to pay 16 percent GST for Punjab's well-being

Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA) Chairman Zain ul Abidin has said that every company should pay 16 percent Provincial GST of its sales to the Authority to generate revenue for the well-being of Punjab.

The PRA Chairman was speaking at a seminar on "The role of Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA) for the business community and awareness regarding tax on services" here at the Pak-China Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCJCCI) on Wednesday.

The seminar was aimed to inculcate tax awareness in the business community as well as in young entrepreneurs.

Zain ul Abidin Sahi said that the Punjab government had established a semi-autonomous organization named as the Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA) to collect and enforce sales tax on services. It has also enacted the Punjab Sales Tax on Services Act, 2012 in supersession of the Punjab Sales Tax Ordinance, 2000 (as amended from time to time), he said.

To begin with, Punjab has kept the tax coverage only to the fourteen categories but now it has reached 68 services covered under the repeated ordinance; hotels, restaurants, beauty salons, construction, courier service, dress designers, doctors, telecommunication etc, he added. The private and public withholding tax system was very important for awareness of the business community, who did not keep adequate information regarding this particular section, he added.

Zarak Khan, President PCJCCI, presented address of welcome on this occasion. Moazzam Ghurki, Senior Vice President and Salahuddin Hanif, Secretary General PCJCCI also exchanged their views with the Guest speaker belonging to the Inland Revenue Service group of 26th Common Training Program.

PCJCCI President Zarak Khan said that the provincial tax systems in Pakistan are more or less based upon a colonial legacy. The dawn of 21st century has seen a visible change in the governance patterns at national as well as at sub-national levels especially in the developing countries, he said, adding that reforms in tax regimes had been initiated as an important component of overall fiscal-economic reforms.

In this regard, Pakistan has also suitably modified its fiscal federalism, under which public service responsibilities of the Provincial governments have been expanded along with creation of several prudent opportunities for the provinces to mobilize their own resources, he said.

He assured of taking efforts to make PCJCCI an effective bridge between business community and the government. He said that PCJCCI was keen to setup Tax facilitation centre for the Chinese business community working in Pakistan.

PCJCCI Senior Vice President Moazam Ghurki said that traders and businessmen had come to know about new sales tax on services two and a half years ago because of PRA's field efforts. We should respect PRA'S work because they are trying to generate revenue for the prosperity of Punjab.