The Executive Committee of the Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) has condemned the unnecessary tactics employed by tax authorities to harass the existing taxpayers instead of exploring new taxpayers. The executive committee meeting was held on Tuesday with President FCCI Engineer Muhammad Saeed Sheikh in the chair.
It noted that the local Regional Tax Office was brutally implementing the tax policy of FBR which is not only fomenting harassment among the existing taxpayers but also discouraging new filers to come into the tax net, Rana Sikandar Azam SVP said that the FCCI has privilege to raise the issue of section 38-A and 40-B of sale tax Act and now all other chambers and trade bodies are protesting against these black laws.
Chaudhary Talat Mehmood said that he is receiving daily 20 to 25 complaints of tax harassment. He told that tax officials have issued notices of Rs 2 lac to a person with meager financial resources. Haji Talib Hussain Rana told that notices of 2014 are being issued mow after a lapse of 3 years. He said that due to the harsh government policies the industrial units are slowly dying. He said that in his seizing units only one machine out of 4 is working. He said that tax officials are demanding 2 % tax for the alternate fuel instead of Sui gas.
Similarly sales tax and income tax notices are also being dispatched to harass them. He said that in case of old cases various unnecessary documentations are also being demanded. President Engineer Muhammad Saeed Sheikh expressed concerns over this attitude of tax officials and said that he will take up this issue at all available forums and try to resolve this issue as early as possible.
Vice president Engineer Ahmed Hassan said that actually non tax payers are responsible for the problems of existing tax payers. He suggested a seminar for the education of non tax payers in order to bring them into the tax net. Similarly the tax officials should also contact the office bearers of local associations and convince them to discharge their national obligation.
Chuadhry Talat Mehmood told that there is a dedicated wing to explore new tax payers but perhaps it was intentionally ignoring multi-story plazas cropping up in every nook and corner of the city. Rashid Muneer told that government has exempted 5 important export sectors from tax but the commercial exporters supplying exporters are forced to pay 2 % in case of the non registered buyers. He said that now they are being asked to provide proof of those non registered buyers or pay 17 % tax in lieu of this sale.
He further told that high court has declared null and void the 2 % tax which was being charged during last 6 months. He requested president FCCI to contact RTO to clarify this issue so that the commercial imports could carry on their normal business acting without any harassment. President FCCI assured that a meeting will be arranged with the tax officials to seek clarification in this regard.