The business community on Saturday expressed grave concern over a new wave of raids at business premises by the Federal Board of Revenue officials against the FBR Chairman' instructions.
Chairman FPCCI Standing Committee on Economic Reforms Kashif Anwar while speaking to the executive committee of the Friends of Economic and Business Reforms said the FBR staff had again started misuse of Section 38-B and 40-B of Sales Tax Act, 1990 against the business community.
He asked the FBR to stop harassing filers, as non-filers who are outside the tax net are not accounted for at all, which discourages businesses to come into the tax net. Registered businesses are required to comply with various departments involving a lot of financial and time resources, whereas unregistered businesses are free from all such hassles, he maintained.
Instead of focusing on controlling under-invoicing, curbing smuggling and expanding tax net, the FBR seems to be inclined to pressurize registered taxpayers, he said.
The recovery through attaching bank accounts is also hampering business growth he said adding that the bank accounts should not be attached without prior notice of the taxpayer.