LAHORE: Executive committee member of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry Raja Adeel Ashfaq has feared that the recent taxation measures will add to the miseries of business community that is already coping with a number of challenges. It would be better if government takes measures to give expansion to the tax net instead of introducing new taxes for already taxed segments of society.
In a statement issued here, Raja Adeel Ashfaq said that new taxation measures will jolt the very basis of the trade and industry. He said that newly introduced taxes would bring down the purchase power of the consumer that would ultimately hit the manufacturing sector hard.
“Business community is unable to understand that why untaxed sectors are not being brought into tax net instead of squeezing the existing taxpayers”, Raja Adeel Ashfaq questioned.
He said that at a time when business community is already under immense pressure due to withholding tax on banking transactions, heavy new taxes will add fuel to the fire and trade & economic activities will go to the grinding halt.
He said that the business community is calling since long to take business community on board while taking trade and industry related decisions but all in vain. He said that policy makers should adopt a positive approach and should keep ground realities while taking of such harsh decisions. He said that new taxation measures signal new rift between the business community and government that is not a good sign for the economy.
He said that business community is ready to work out jointly with the government for acceptable tax reforms and to resolve the tax-related issues being faced by the business community.
He said that he has already suggested to the government to introduce tax reforms and make complicated taxation system simple in consultation with the stakeholders to promote tax culture in the country. Raja Adeel Ashfaq said that most of the challenges being faced by the economy are directly linked to complicated and lengthy taxation procedures.
He said that business community believes that for the promotion of tax culture in Pakistan, the government would have to bring down the rate of the taxes besides bringing the untaxed sectors into the tax net.
He said that flaws in taxation system causing loss of billions of rupees to the national exchequer. He said that a large number of taxes and difficult taxation system is also creating troubles for the taxpayers. He said that tax reforms like developed countries could enhance the government revenue.
Raja Adeel Ashfaq said that most of the challenges being faced by the economy are directly linked to complicated and lengthy taxation procedures. He said that flaws in taxation system causing loss of billions of rupees to the national exchequer. He said that a large number of taxes and difficult taxation system is creating troubles for the taxpayers. He said that tax reforms like developed countries could enhance the government revenue. He said that government would have to facilitate the business community to achieve the huge revenue target set for the ongoing financial year.
