Annual Report

All Punjab Chambers & Trade Associations Demand
Immediate Withdrawal Of Rd, Withholding Tax
And Discretionary Powers
All Punjab Chambers of Commerce & Industry and trade
associations, at a convention under the umbrella of the
Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry, have demanded
of the government to withdraw Regulatory Duty,
withholding tax on bank transactions and FBR's
discretionary powers immediately.
“We would gather outside the Parliament if our genuine
demands are not accepted”, the participants of convention
said.
The LCCI President Malik Tahir Javed presided over the
convention while the LCCI Vice President Zeshan Khalil,
former office bearers Sheikh Muhammad Asif, Mian
Shafqat Ali, Shahid Hassan Sheikh, Muhammad Ali Mian,
Sohail Lashari, Abdul Basit, Aftab Ahmed Vohra, Syed
Mahmood Ghaznavi, Executive Committee Members,
office-bearers & representatives of Chambers and trade &
industrial associations spoke on the occasion.
All the participants also issued a joint communiqué
defending the rights of business community and asking the
government to act promptly and resolve these issues
without delay of a single moment. They condemned
imposition of Regulatory Duty on hundreds of items
through SRO 1035(I)/2017 dated October 16, 2017 and
demanded its immediate withdrawl. They demanded
withdrawal of withholding tax on bank transactions with
immediate effect. Chambers & Trade Associations urged
the government to withdraw the draconian provisions and
laws giving immense discretionary powers acquired
through last four finance Bills to the officers of Inland
Revenue and field formation which is core issue and
resulting in hardship, loss
of productivity and mental torture to the business
community. These laws have kept a large number of
potential taxpayers out of the tax regime. In fact these laws
are a deterrent to broadening of tax-base. They strongly
denounced the misuse of discretionary powers by the
officers of Inland Revenue under sections 38- A, 38-B, 40-
A, 40-B, 176, 177 and urged the government to withdraw
these sections immediately.
The LCCI President Malik Tahir Javed said that
withholding tax on cash withdrawal is related to the Income
Tax Ordinance 236-P and 231-A. He said that withholding
tax has not only hit the business community hard but also
affected the banking sector as people have started using
other ways. He said that new Regulatory Duty regime
would be hardly doing any service to the economy. Federal
Board of Revenue should totally withdraw the recently
imposed Regulatory Duty otherwise its destruction would
be beyond the imaginations.
The LCCI President said that unjustified levies like
withholding tax are discouraging the new taxpayers and
obstructing the expansion of tax net. He said that new
strategy will be evolved if these issues are not resolved
immediately.
Malik Tahir Javed said that indirect taxes are being removd
graudually throughout the world here in Pakistan these are
contributing around 60 percent to the revenue despite the
fact that expenses on this practice are higher than the
collections. He said that tax collection was increased by
around 60 percent from 2012-13 to 2015-16 but number of
tax filers
reduced to 0.9 million from 1.4 million during this period
The participants of convention said that there are 3.5
million registered taxpayers out of which only around 1
million file their tax returns. Government should take all
the measures to ensure filing of returns by remaining 2.5
million individuals and businesses. The government claims
that it always acts as a facilitator but in this scenario it is
entirely otherwise.
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