KARACHI: Federal Minister for Finance and Economic Affairs, Ishaq Dar, has assured a delegation of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) that the issue of audit notices to taxpayers under final tax regime will be thoroughly discussed with the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) chairman with a view to provide relief to perturbed taxpayers.
The assurance was given by the minister to the KCCI delegation during a meeting in Islamabad. The delegation comprised of Vice Chairman Businessmen Group and former KCCI president, Zubair Motiwala, KCCI president, Iftikhar Ahmed Vohra, the chairman of the KCCI Special Committee for Implementing MoUs, Junaid Esmail Makda, former KCCI president, AQ Khalil, chairman of the Site Association of Industry, Javed Bilwani and former SVP, Talat Mehmood.
The KCCI delegation, while highlighting the grievances being faced by the taxpayers due to complex tax procedures, said that FBR’s decision to issue audit notices to the taxpayers under FTR has triggered deep concern amongst the honest taxpayers, who fear that these audit notices will only promote corruption and they will mainly be used as a tool to further harass the loyal taxpayers of Karachi.
They said that instead of overburdening the taxpayers and creating more problems for them by issuing audit notices, the government must devise an effective strategy to bring tax evaders into the net which would surely help in achieving the tax collection target for the current fiscal year.
The KCCI delegation further asked the government to consider Karachi Chamber’s demand to constitute a charter of economy which must be signed by all political parties of the country in order to recover the ailing economy.
They said that Karachi Chamber has been demanding implementation of Charter of Economy from time to time since many years as the business community of Karachi strongly believes that it was the only way forward to put the economy back on track to prosperity on long term basis through sustainable policies.
Nation was in a dire need to constitute a charter of economic growth or roadmap in consultation with the business and industrial community, which must be endorsed by all political parties and implemented with the approval from National Assembly, they added.
