FBR asked to include inputs of business community

F.P. Report

RAWALPINDI: Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI) President Malik Shahid Saleem has requisted Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and Finance Ministry  to include the inputs of business community, professionals and representatives from tax bar associations for bringing reforms in such schemes.

In a statement, President RCCI said it has been observed that these schemes were not given attraction nor state met the desired results as all such scheme had less inputs from the relevant stakeholders, the business community, he added.

Last year, an amnesty scheme was also introduced but it fetched only around 60 billion. The current government after recent changes in top position at finance ministry, the trust deficit has been widened and they had to work hard to bridge the gap. The wheel of economy must be back on track as soon as possible.

Chambers are not against amnesty schemes, we, however, always been vocal to make such scheme conditional with industry.

President Malik Shahid Saleem said that documentation of economy is vital for economic uplift and asked the government to introduce amendments in laws so that registration of income tax filing can be made hassle free.

These amnesty schemes in any fiscal year aimed to help State treasury raising tax revenues, adding beneficiaries in tax base who have not declared their assets previously. However, at the same time, the beneficiaries must be directed to divert the white capital in industry so that we can have more job opportunities in a longer run. He also demanded that more incentives should be given to tax payers and reforms must be introduced in tax regime to help broadening the tax net and increasing the tax payers numbers.

If business community taken on board, the scheme would increase tax revenue, enhance foreign exchange reserves, reduce the current account deficit, improve balance of payments, bring foreign capital to Pakistan and enhance economic activities, he added.