ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Muhammad Javed Ghani on Sunday said that he would address tax related issues of the business community in order to facilitate their businesses and strengthen the country’s economy.
The FBR chairman said this while addressing a delegation of Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) led by ICCI President Muhammad Ahmed Waheed.
Javed Ghani said that he would visit ICCI to interact with the business community and get their input regarding further improvements in the prevailing tax system. He said that efforts would be made to create a taxation system that can facilitate the growth of economic activities and help in improving the tax revenue of the country. He welcomed the suggestions given by the delegation members for resolving taxation related problems and broadening of the tax base.
Speaking at the occasion, ICCI president congratulated Muhammad Javed Ghani for assuming the charge of FBR chairman and hoped that the FBR chairman would take measures to address key tax issues of the business community and promote the vision of the Prime Minister Imran Khan to turn Pakistan into a fast growing economy.
ICCI president said that the current government has made commitments to streamline the payment of tax refunds, but the process has been slow due to which the business community is facing liquidity issues.
ICCI president further said that the Covid-19 pandemic has created extraordinary challenges for the business community and the overall economy which necessitated FBR’s focus on speedy automation of refunds including customs duty, sales tax and income tax to ensure that all tax refunds are automatically transferred to the bank accounts of the concerned taxpayers.
He said that another option to solve the issue of refunds is to allow taxpayers to adjust their payable taxes against the accumulated refunds. This mechanism would not only address the liquidity issues of the business community but would also improve the tax revenue of the government.
The ICCI president further informed that under Section-8B of Sales Tax Act, a registered person is not allowed to adjust input tax in excess of 90 per cent of the output tax for the tax period, which he said is unjustified.
He said that taxpayers have to deposit 0.10 per cent of the sales tax amount in cash at the time of depositing sales tax returns and stressed that due to the Covid-19 economic slowdown, FBR should allow 100 percent adjustment of input tax against output tax.
ICCI Senior Vice President Tahir Abbasi, FPCCI Chief Coordinator Malik Sohail Hussain and ICCI former vice president Ahsan Zafar Bakhtawari also gave suggestions regarding the tax system.
They said that taxpayers should be allowed 100 per cent adjustment of input tax as depriving them of 10 per cent input tax was an injustice. They were of the view that providing facilitation to the business community in tax matters would pave the way for early economic recovery from the Covid-19 slowdown and steer the country out of current challenges.
