It’s a taxing system!

Government should take additional measures for simplification of tax system against the target of Rs1,952 billion for ongoing fiscal year.
These remarks were made by Yassar Sakhi Butt, President Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry during a meeting at Chamber House. He said that Exemption from penalties and default surcharge for all taxes will be beneficial for maximum revenue collection during this financial year.
He said that exemption from default surcharge and penalties has been announced in Sales Tax and Federal Excise cases through SRO 548 dated 22nd May 2012. Whereas, in case of Income Tax amnesty has been given to withholding tax agents only through SRO 548 dated 22nd May 2012. Thus, he said that such amnesty should be announced for Income Tax cases as well where any amount is outstanding on account of any audit observation, audit report, show cause notice or any adjudication order or who has failed to pay any amount of tax due under the income tax ordinance 2001 due to any reason.
ICCI President said that Government should announce the realistic economic targets for forthcoming fiscal year 2012-13 by keeping in view the ground realities to achieve sustainable development.
Yassar Sakhi Butt said that amnesty across the board for all taxes will facilitate both the tax payers and the tax department for settlement of the pending cases and will save the time and cost both of the tax payers and the department. He expressed concern over the missed tax collection target of Rs1,588 billion in the last fiscal year that shown a deficit of Rs30 billion and said that proactive measures should be introduced to plug the leakages and improve the refund system in tax departments.
He said that deadline for payment has been fixed for 31st May 2012, therefore, ICCI President was of the opinion that the deadline for payment should be extended to 15th June 2012.