LAHORE: The Progressive Group in the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has called upon the government to introduce a “Digital Tax Collection Linkage System” to bring transparency and accuracy to the national tax collection system. This system should connect all Pakistani nationals through their computerized national identification number (CNIC).

“Such a digital tax collection system will help broaden the tax net, taxing those who can pay and helping to identify those who should benefit from the money collected by the Federal Board of Revenue,” said Progressive Group’s central leader and LCCI Executive Committee member Muhammad Ejaz Tanveer in a statement issued here on Wednesday.

He was of the view that a digital tax system should have access to all the data of FBR, bank accounts, land records, vehicle records etc to ensure an across-the-board fair and transparent collection system.

At the same time, Ejaz Tanveer said that the agricultural tax should not be a dormant sector in the country and that big landlords should be taxed according to their income.

He said that the government should impose a tax on housing and residential plots on an annual basis but housing units or plots measuring five marlas should be exempted from it.

However, to discourage unnecessary real estate development, Muhammad Ejaz Tanveer proposed that a tax should be collected from those plot owners who were in possession of it for the last two years and not constructing any residential unit on it.

He said trade and services sectors were playing a pivotal role in generating revenue and jobs for the country, so these sectors should be consulted before imposing any new tax or enhancing rates of the already levied taxes.

Taxation is a fundamental aspect of any nation’s economic infrastructure, serving as the lifeblood of government operations and public services. In Pakistan, like in many other countries, conventional tax collection methods have faced challenges such as inefficiency, corruption, and limited taxpayer engagement. To address these issues and enhance the overall tax collection process, Pakistan should have a Digital Tax Collection System (DTCS), Ejaz Tanveer concluded.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023