There is no deadlock between the traders and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) over the fixed tax issue, said FBR Chairman Shabbar Zaidi while addressing a press conference in Islamabad on Saturday.
“We have held more than 40 meetings with different groups of traders and all our discussions have been very positive,” he claimed. “The government is steadfast in its belief that fixed tax should be imposed on small traders.”
He said even the traders agree to the fixed tax policy but they want the tax to be determined by turnover.
“We listened to their concerns and we are engaging in a dialogue over ways to determine the turnover,” he added.
Another tax reform that is being debated between the two parties is the CNIC condition. The government wants the traders to provide a copy of a purchaser’s CNIC for the sale and purchase of goods worth more than Rs50,000.
“I think that it is no longer an issue. We have all agreed to it,” he remarked.
Naeem Mir, a representative of the traders, said that they don’t have any problem showing their CNIC at the time of purchase. “We are scared of the consequences of this step,” he told a private media outlet.
“This will give the government all the data about our sales and we can be easily blackmailed into paying a bribe to certain people. We will be stuck in the documentation and it will just lead to more corruption. We don’t mind the condition, we just want an assurity that our data will not be misused.”
