LAHORE: Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry in a press release confirmed that all trade associations of city had rejected tax measures of SRO 608(I)/2014 unanimously and called for it’s immediately withdrawal.
AS per details, trade associations of LCCI urged the government to facilitate the business community to put the economy back on track. The demand was raised at a meeting held here at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry which was presided by the LCCI President Engineer Sohail Lashari while Vice President Kashif Anwar, former Senior Vice President Irfan Iqbal Sheikh, Executive Committee Members Mian Zahid Javed, Muhammad Haroon Arora, Haji Muhammad Akram and president Anjuman-e-Tajran Ashraf Bhatti were also present at the meeting.
The LCCI president assured the trading community of his full support for the early withdrawal of the SRO that could create troubles for traders in the long run.He said that he had already requested the government to put in place
the mechanism of public-private dialogue so that the policies could be
made result oriented.
He warned that at a time when the economy was passing through critical times of history because of the shortage of gas and electricity, new taxation measures like SRO 608(I) 2014 were meant to create a wrong impression on traders.
The LCCI President said that it was very unfortunate that instead of widening tax base and bringing the untaxed sectors into the tax net, steps are being taken to squeeze the existing tax payers.
Moreover, Mr Lashari said that this SRO proved that the FBR and the LCC has not been on the same page on the issue as the FBR wants documentation of the economy through this controversial SRO while the LCCI believes that all the sectors should pay tax and enforcement of Professional tax needs to be strengthened.
“If the FBR has been interested in broadening of tax net, it must bring all the sectors into the tax net instead of creating troubles for the registered persons who were already doing businesses in the presence of multiple internal and external challenges” he added.
