LAHORE: Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI) on Tuesday asked the government to harmonize/unify Labour Taxes in Punjab to facilitate the business community.

Talking to a delegation of businessmen here, LCCI President Almas Hyder said that number of taxes pertaining to industries and businesses in Punjab could be reduced considerably by clubbing Employees Old Age Benefit Institution (EOBI), Punjab Employees Social Security Institution  (PESSI),  Workers' Profit Participation Fund (WPPF) and Workers' Welfare Fund (WWF).

LCCI President also suggested that responsibility for collection of these taxes should be given to Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA), citing that once this major initiative was materialized, it would help separate tax collection from service provision so that the department like PESSI, EOBI etc stop sending inspectors for tax collection and focus only on service delivery.

Almas Hyder said that frequency of tax payments of labor taxes  (EOBI, PESSI, WPPF, WWF) should be reduced to once a year. While giving a breakup of frequency of tax payment, he said that businessmen would have to pay 12 times Employer paid - Pension contribution, 12 times Social security contributions, and one time each to WWF and WPPF.

He said that clubbing of these taxes would reduce the frequency of tax payments to just one that would be equally beneficial for the businessmen and the government.

He added that implementation of these measures by the government would not only reduce the burden on existing taxpayers but also encourage new taxpayers to come into the tax net, besides improving Pakistan's international ranking in paying taxes.