The Board of Investment (BOI) on Friday said the government was focusing on ease of paying taxes in order to ensure a business-friendly environment for local and foreign investors.
“We are focusing on tax reforms and would take further steps to simplify payment of taxes mechanism for the local and foreign investors,” spokesman of the BoI Shah Jahan Shah told the agency.
The business environment could be improved further by giving consideration to 70 withholding provisions of taxes, including clause (72-B), part IV second schedule of the Income Tax Ordinance, he said.
He said an effective system of taxation helped in formalising the economy, encourages economic growth, shapes political cohesion between tiers of the government and results in an increase in social sector service delivery.
A BOI spokesman stressed that there was dire need to reform the taxation regime, particularly reducing the administrative burden on tax payers through merging and addressing the multiplicity of taxes, tax payments and tax collecting agencies.
Shah Jahan Shah said in Pakistan, tax payment was taking more time and also an administrative burden as compared to high-income Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries.
Through new work plan, BOI would hold road shows in collaboration with chambers of commerce and industries and All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) for focusing on textile and steel industry.
He said that priority of BOI was to reviving the confidence of foreign investors to ultimately boost foreign investment in the country.
