Skip to main content

ICCI urges govt not to levy new taxes in mini budget

Islamabad : The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) has called upon the government to ensure that the compliant taxpayers were not burdened with new taxes in the forthcoming new mini-budget as putting more tax burden on the regular taxpayers for enhancing tax revenue would prove counterproductive and discourage tax culture in the country.Ahmed Hassan Moughal, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry said that the government was making preparations to announce its second supplementary budget within less than five months after presenting first supplementary budget in September 2018 to increase revenue collection and reduce fiscal deficit, but it should avoid imposing new taxes on the existing taxpayers and should instead focus on broadening the tax net that was the wise approach to improve tax revenue collection.He said that despite tall claims for broadening the tax net, successive governments in Pakistan have not been able to increase the tax base due to which the country was facing the problem of low tax revenue. He said that out of a population of over 200 million people, FBR had reportedly received only 482,275 income tax returns for the tax year 2018 till October 2018, which reflected that many potential taxpayers were allowed to remain out of tax net. This situation was putting extra burden on the existing taxpayers and making their life miserable.Ahmed Hassan Moughal said that according to a working paper of IMF, Pakistan had a tax revenue gap equivalent to 10 percent of its GDP or roughly $28 billion in 2016 while the country has the potential to double its tax revenue to-GDP-ratio by increasing its tax base. He said the current government has taken a wise step by separating tax policy from tax collection, however, it should take bold measures to broaden the tax base with protection to the rights of existing taxpayers.Rafat Farid, Senior Vice President and Iftikhar Anwar Sethi Vice President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry said that Pakistan would continue to rely on outside donors for fiscal stability until strong measures were not taken to build an adequate tax base.They urged that government should formulate a new tax policy focusing on broadening the tax base and safeguarding the genuine interests of compliant taxpayers that would help in enhancing the tax revenue and coping with fiscal deficit issue more effectively.

from The News International - Islamabad http://bit.ly/2BPNDj8
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

3 drug pushers, bootlegger held

Islamabad :Islamabad Industrial Area Police have arrested three drug pushers and a bootlegger besides recovery of narcotics and 120 liter liquor from them, a police spokesman said.According to details, a police team of Industrial Area police station arrested three drug pushers namely Kamran, Irfan and Shamoon Masih and recovered 320 gram heroin and 210 gram hashish from them,.Another police team arrested a bootlegger namely Ansar Javed and recovered 120 liter wine, bottles, stickers and brewing equipment from him. Cases have been registered against these nabbed persons and further investigation is underway from them.SP (Industrial Area) Zubair Ahmad Shaikh has said that Industrial Area zone police is doing its job efficiently and crackdown against criminals would be continued.Despite the sit in, he said Islamabad Police has been performing its duty quite efficiently and has successfully managed to maintain the daily life in the Capital.In this regard, Senior Police officers including S...
Post a Comment
Read more

‘Aziz Bhatti Shaheed My Brother, My Hero’

Real heroes are heroes of every one. They are not controversial. Nations love them more than anything. Major Aziz Bhatti Shaheed is among those real-time heroes of 1965 War, who not only stood firm to face the enemy aggression but also repulsed it with his unprecedented courage. He gave his life while defending the frontiers of motherland but never let the enemy succeed in its nefarious designs. The proud nation awarded him with ‘Nishan-i-Haider’, the biggest gallantry award of the country. Now that more than 54 years have passed, since he embraced Shahadat, he continues to live in the hearts of each and every Pakistani. Aziz Bhatti is remembered with love and affection. Nation observes his Yaum-e-Shahadat on 12th of September in a befitting manner.This year was significant in a sense that his younger brother Sardar Ahmed Bhatti (95 years old now) presented this nation a book named ‘Aziz Bhatti Shaheed My Brother My Hero’. This book is classic and unique in a way that it unearths many ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pragmatic steps taken to implement Axle Load Control regime on NH&MP

Islamabad: Ministry of Communications has taken pragmatic steps to implement the Axle Load Control regime on Motorways & National Highways in the country. Sole objective of this move is to control travelling of overloaded vehicles which lead to fatal accidents besides damaging the national asset of road network of billions of rupees.Prior to implementation of axle load control regime, a technical committee was formed, consisting of officers from Ministry of Communications and National Highway Authority which remained in constant contacts with transport community, Members of the Chambers of Commerce and stakeholders hailing from all the provinces. This technical committee visited their offices and held detailed discussions in series of meetings and took them into confidence to facilitate implementation of Axle Load Control regime. The stakeholders assured of their full cooperation and subsequently, implementation of Axle Load Control was realized which is in progress.It is worth to ...
Post a Comment
Read more