Businessmen press for PM’s intervention

Demand withdrawal of all controversial SROs issued after December.

FAISALABAD: Businessmen have sent a letter to the president and prime minister, asking them to direct the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to take back all controversial SROs issued after December 2012 without consultation with true representatives of the business community.

“Controversial SROs (statutory regulatory orders) issued by the FBR are totally unacceptable, these should be withdrawn immediately as they run counter to the interest of industry and business,” said Mian Zahid Aslam, President of the Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI), in the letter.

He described the SROs, including SRO 98 and SRO 154 that impose withholding tax and end zero-rated tax facility, as unilateral, controversial and discriminatory that served the interests of certain non-representative entities.

The SROs were not only difficult but also impossible to implement and even the previous Public Accounts Committee had discouraged the SRO culture, he said.

Businessmen are already struggling for their economic survival in these times of energy crisis when gas is supplied for only three days a week in the Faisalabad region.

In the letter, Aslam pointed out that the FCCI is the third largest chamber in Pakistan, representing the business community that generates heavy revenue for the public exchequer. Scores of federal and provincial ministers did visit the chamber for consultation before framing policies, but the FBR chairman had not come for talks for a long time.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 3^rd, 2013.

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