LAHORE: Pakistan Tax Bar Association (PTBA) has demanded a separate zone for sales tax in an anticipation to increase the tax revenue upto 1000 percent.
PTBA president Aftab Nagra and senior vice-president Qari Habibur Rehman Zubari has made this demand in an emergent meeting while other members including Arshad Nawaz Man, Syed Tanseer Bukhari, Sohail Akhtar, Shehbaz Sidique, Sehabaz Qadar, Ghulam Mehmood Ansari and other were present on the occasion.
Earlier, the PTBA has written letters to the prime minister and Federal Board of Revenue chairman in this regard.
Suggesting reforms in the existing structure of FBR they said that there is no harm in increasing revenue targets but the government needs to take measures in this direction accordingly.
Independent sales tax zones under the member sales tax (ST) in all RTOs, CRTOs and LTUs across the country should be established and professional trained officers be appointed in these ST zones, the said adding that in 74 years whole of the government has registered only 0.2 million in Sales Tax which is a thought provoking fact.
The government every year increase 70 percent to 75 percent in income tax revenues while only 14 percent to 20 percent increase is incorporated in sales tax, the said explaining that the establishment system of sale tax was working good untill 1995 but since it had been
merged in Inland Revenue (IR) system the performance on account of sales tax has dropped to zero percent.
They highlighted that income tax, sales tax and excise duty are different in nature and their zone should also be separated.
It is high time that separate sales tax zones must be established so that the sales tax revenue could be increased upto 1000 percent every year, they concluded.
