Tax payment: Pindi chamber seeks early announcement of incentives

Officials express concern over delay promised by Ishaq Dar

RAWALPINDI: Rawalpindi traders’ body has urged the government to announce a tax incentives package for traders, said a press release.

In a statement issued on Sunday, Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI) President Mian Humayun Parvez said that the business community had been having discussions with the tax authorities for the last six months.

While referring to a recent meeting of traders and representatives of the business community with Finance Minister Ishaq Dar at the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), he said that they were expecting that a package would be announced soon after the meeting.

“Traders were expecting that the package will be announced the next day but it did not happen,” he said.

The RCCI president also complained about what he called a complex tax system in the country.

“The business community serves as the backbone of national economy, and looks forward to an early announcement,” he said, adding that calling the incentives package, an amnesty scheme was not appropriate.

“It is not about traders clearing their undeclared assets against payment of a nominal tax, rather the package sought is meant to facilitate traders and taxpayers file their returns in an easy and simple way,” Parvez said.

The package sought will help increase collection of taxes and widen the tax net, and not just assist with declaration of real income, he emphasised.

Meanwhile, the RCCI former president, Syed Asad Mashhadi, who is also member of the traders committee, urged Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Dar to call a traders convention as soon as possible and announce the package.

He said that the existing system of tax collection was complex and was creating panic among the business community. Mashhadi expressed hope that with the package more people would be added to the tax net and that would facilitate all.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 28^th, 2015.