Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Ansar Javed on Thursday said Pakistan’s future is linked to promotion of a tax culture and said the board was determined to improve the tax-to-GDP ratio to make Pakistan a respectable and self-sustaining nation, requesting support from the business community in this regard.
He said FBR had chalked out a plan to promote a tax culture in the country for which many steps have been initiated including establishment of a Data Warehouse which will boost the number of taxpayers from an existing 1.3 million to 20 million. Javed was speaking at a pre-budget seminar organised by FPCCI. FPCCI President Zubair Ahmed Malik, FBR members Muhammad Riaz and Raza Baqir, Saarc CCI VP Iftikhar Ali Malik, FPCCI Budget Committee Chairman Zakaria Usman, FPCCI VPs Azhar Saeed Butt, Muhammad Ali, Khawaja Iqbal, ICCI President Zafar Bakhtawri and others were also present on the occasion.
The FBR chairman said meeting the business community helped the board to get first-hand knowledge and reaction of stakeholders which will help them improve performance and ensure a level playing field. “We are seriously vetting budget proposals to facilitate the business community and we need support of FPCCI to expand the tax base,” the chief of the apex tax agency said.
He said FBR was employing latest technology altered to local needs, to facilitate taxpayers and discourage misuse of authority by field staff.
Assuring all support to the business community, Ansar Javed said FBR is not supposed to collect taxes only but to take care of the economic direction the country takes and play its role in development of society.
Earlier, FPCCI President Zubair Ahmed Malik said the country is passing through difficult times due to mismanagement, bad governance, deteriorating law and order situation and the energy crunch which had increased crime rate, unemployment and decreased revenues.
However, he said, FPCCI will support all positive steps of the FBR to put the economy back on tract.
Iftikhar Ali Malik and Sindh Minister for Information Technology Mian Zahid Hussain and office bearers of various business chambers said the SRO culture should be discouraged as it served no purpose. Consultation with business community before issuance of SROs and other directives should be made mandatory to boost confidence, they demanded.
FPCCI officials said subsidy given to different sectors amounts to wasting the hard-earned money of taxpayers which should be abolished or minimised.
Criticising the sales tax regime, they said it is not progressive but regressive which is not helping in any way.
Participants of the seminar also discussed issues pertaining to the recent economic downturn, revenue targets, mismanagement, tax relaxations, confusing rules and regulations, continuation in policies, tax breaks, increasing share of parallel economy in the national GDP, registration and deregistration process, and the overall tax environment. The FBR chief promised to respond to issues raised by business leaders within seven days.