KARACHI: Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI) President Zubair Tufail has expressed his heart-felt felicitation to Tariq Mahmood Pasha on his appointment as the chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
He said Pasha rightly deserved this post by virtue of his long and versatile experience and excellent track record of success in the field of Inland Revenue and Ministry of Finance.
The FPCCI chief referring to the findings of the World Bank Report, ranking Pakistan’s Tax-to-GDP ratio at 12.4 per cent, which is quite low. He hoped that the new incumbent would take long term and short term measures to gradually enhance it to its actual potential as the low ratio is the mother of all economic ills, such as higher taxes, tax evasion, thin tax-base, exponential increase in parallel economy, tax deficit of Rs 3.2 trillion annually etc.
He said that only 1.2 million returns are filed. “This underscores the need to bring all the sectors of the economy in the tax-net and whenever the income is generated be taxed with political will, as at present, manufacturing sector is overly burdened (pay 70.4 per cent of total taxes) in comparison to its contribution (20.3 per cent) in the GDP,” he added.
Zubair Tufail proposed that the FPCCI should be consulted in the formulation of the tax policy to ensure its smooth implementation.
The FPCCI president urged the FBR chief to stop field formation from arbitrary taxation and negative tactics to squeeze the existing taxpayers as was done in the past. “To achieve uphill task to collect Rs four trillion tax set for the current fiscal year (2017-18), tax net must be expanded with tough measures without disturbing existing taxpayers,” he added.
The FPCCI chief was confident that the existing cordial relations between the FPCCI and the FBR would be further enhanced for the benefit of both the stakeholders –FBR and trade & industry, and assured the FBR chairman of his full support and co-operation for the promotion of tax culture in the country.
