Business

More borrowing: Tax evasion increases foreign loan burden, says PM’s aide

Govt will slap 100% penalty on traders that do not opt for tax amnesty

Owais Qarni February 18, 2016

Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Revenue Haroon Akhtar Khan speaking at a seminar organised by traders and the Federal Board of Revenue. PHOTO: EXPRESS

MULTAN: A 100% penalty would be imposed on the non-filers of tax returns who fail to avail themselves of the tax amnesty scheme, said Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Revenue Haroon Akhtar Khan.

Speaking at a seminar organised by traders and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Khan said the number of people paying taxes in Pakistan constituted only a small fraction of taxpayers in India, adding if Pakistanis paid at the same level, there would be nine million taxpayers in the country.

“The government would not have taken foreign loans had nine million people been paying taxes,” he remarked.

“The burden of foreign loans is increasing because people evade taxes. Nearly one million people out of the population of around 180 million are paying taxes, which is very low,” he said and urged the non-filers of returns to capitalise on the opportunity provided by the amnesty scheme, which would surely benefit them.

“The tax-to-GDP ratio is nearly 11% in Pakistan whereas in India it is 18%.” He said facilities such as no sales tax registration, no withholding tax agent, no wealth statement and no tax audit were being provided to the new tax return filers for a certain period of time. The government will also provide facilities to the traders who are already paying taxes.

A new one-page tax form in Urdu language had also been introduced to streamline the system for the traders, he added. “The amnesty scheme is a move to broaden the tax base and is not an opportunity to legalise the black money,” said All Pakistan Anjuman-e-Tajiran Chairman Khawaja Shafique.

“Earlier, all amnesties were granted to the smugglers only; this is the first time that the government has given incentives to the small and medium-sized traders.” He said the government was attempting to bring an additional one million taxpayers into the tax net in the next three years but the opposition was trying to politicise the whole issue and sabotage tax collection.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 19^th, 2016.

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COMMENTS (3)

Hassan | 8 years ago | Reply Govt.deduct taxes from more than one million people, so please don't say that we have only one million tax payers. Only one million people files income tax return but that doesn't mean that they are the only tax payers.

not | 8 years ago | Reply The way FBR collect taxes is wrong. The ones who are paying taxes are fewling more pain than the people who dont pay at all. We first have to pay each and every penny in taxes and in the end the officers also demand to feed them with our hard earned money. Our tax refunds have been pending since 2 years now and by every month passing it increases even more. To collect the refund again we have to give the FBR officers their cut in OUR own money to get a refund. The FBR office is full of looters. They are just like butchers of EID. They are ever ready to halal someone and mind it they can go to any stage just to make some money out of innocent people's hard earned income. Tax policies should be friendly atleast for the tax payers. It is only friendly in papers and the peple who dont have a NTN and are not registered are enjoying their life tension free. Shame on our govts. Sindh and Federal both! Shame on you all.

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