LAHORE: Former Lahore Tax Bar Association president Habibur Rehman Zubari has said that percentage of customs duty and income tax rate should be reduced and individuals who are paying sales tax must be appreciated instead of harassment.
Habibur Rehman Zubari expressed these pre-budget 2015-16 suggestions while talking to Customs Today.
He said that Customs Department laws should be equal for every individual, percentage of customs duties should be reduced, and authorities should make a mechanism that could come in handy in doing away with the under-invoicing from the country.
Zubari said that National Assembly should be making customs laws in due consultation with the tax lawyers and traders community.
“A large number of smuggled items are dumped in our markets inflicting heavy losses on the genuine businessmen. It is need of the hour to crush under-invoicing and smuggling from the country for a sustainable growth and development”, Zubari underscored.
He added that registered Sales Tax payers who are paying their taxes must be appreciated and not harassed so that they feel honored in paying their tax liabilities instead of evading them.
“Sales Tax exemptions should be withdrawn, percentage of ST should be reduced as the rate of tax is much higher in our country than that of the other countries in the region”.
In ST section 8-B adjustable in good tax should be easy for the manufacturers and section 8-Ajoint, and several liabilities of registered persons and section 8(1) (c) (a) should be enforceable so that the fear that tax evaders may run could be minimized, he explained.
While giving his insight in to the Income Tax related issues, Zubari, said that Income tax percentage should also be reduced in the upcoming budget enabling the taxpayers to find taxpaying an easy option than that of the tax evaders.
He pointed out that income tax percentage in our country is comparatively higher than the other countries in the region.
“Right now in our country Public Limited Companies are paying 33percent of the Income as income tax while in our neighbor countries these companies are paying 5 to 25 percent of their total income as income tax,” the expert suggested.
Further he stated that retailers income tax rules should be introduced in which minimum tax percentage should be 0.5 percent and it should be made compulsory for all the retailers to pay the tax.
Minimum turnover tax should also be reduced to 0.5 percent under section 113, Habibur Rehman Zubari concluded.
