Reorganisation: OICCI shares tax proposals, urges restructuring

Body’s president calls for reform to facilitate investment in country.

KARACHI: The Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI) has urged the government to restructure the taxation system and facilitate investment and economic activities in the country.

OICCI President Asad S Jaffar said that the government needs to facilitate honest taxpayers through timely settlement of issues, tax all type of incomes, by ensuring SROs are judicially eliminated and guarantee documentation of the economy is accelerated without any compromise, a press release said on Monday.

The OICCI representatives recently shared their taxation proposals (2014-15) with FBR Chairman Tariq Bajwa and Member Inland Revenue (IR) Shahid Hussain Asad in a meeting held here at OICCI office.

Jafar appreciated the ongoing engagement initiative of the FBR chairman and his top team with key stakeholders like OICCI whose members contribute over Rs700 billion annually to the federal and provincial revenue.

OICCI Secretary Abdul Aleem presented the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business (EODB) Index rating where Pakistan has sharply slipped from being 75 in 2010 to 110 in 2014 and said that this presented considerable negative implications in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country.

One of the key irritant in EODB has been the complications on paying taxes, including provincial and local taxes. The OICCI highlighted concern on the frequent use of tax amnesty schemes as a disincentive to regular taxpayers.

OICCI’s 2014-15 taxation proposals include several tax broadening measures to increase the tax to GDP ratio–like effective enforcement and administrative reforms, filing of tax returns by all income earning segments and individuals earning more than the threshold, better and more effective utilisation of NADRA database and other data from documented sources available to FBR.

Other proposals discussed were lowering corporate tax rates, elimination or rationalisation of minimum tax regime, faster processing of tax refunds, increasing incentives for attracting FDI, and involvement of OICCI in the exercise to review existing SROs to ensure minimum impact on FDI and continuing documentation of the economy.

Aleem also mentioned that reversal of some important documentation measures which were introduced through the Finance Act 2013-14 were frustrating for honest taxpayers.  Published in The Express Tribune, April 1^st, 2014.

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