LAHORE: The Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI) congratulate newly appointed FBR Chairman Tariq Mahmood Pasha and expressed optimism that with his long experience, he would help resolve economic issues and challenges.
In a statement issued here, the LCCI President Abdul Basit, Senior Vice President Amjad Ali Jawa and Vice President Muhammad Nasir Hameed Khan said that trust deficit had been widened from last couple of years between the business community and Federal Board of Revenue that impacted harshly on the business environment in the country.
They said that Tariq Mahmood Pasha has assumed the charge as Chairman FBR at a critical time when businessmen are worried because of abuse of discretionary powers by the FBR staff, raids at business premises and raids at business premises despite the clear instructions from the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and immediate past Chairman of Federal Board of Revenue.
The LCCI office-bearers said that business community wants to supplement government endeavors aimed at economic revival of the country and is also ready to give positive doable suggestion to the Federal Board of Revenue for expansion of tax net.
They invited the new Chairman FBR to visit the Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry to share his future plans with the business community. The LCCI office-bearers said that the new chairman would have to utilize his best abilities to facilitate the businessmen who are generating revenues for the government despite all odds. They said that the FBR Chairman would have to take unusual strides to expedite the refund cases pending with the Board for a long time now and have blocked huge cash flow of the business community already perturbed due to challenging business conditions. It is also hoped the newly appointed Chairman would review all the controversial SROs issued in the recent past in the larger interests of the economy.
“Through friendly approach and honoring the honest taxpayers, Federal Board of Revenue could collect more revenues than the existing as people would come into the tax net voluntarily. Cruel measures would nothing else but to shatter the confidence of business community”, the LCCI office-bearers concluded.
