LAHORE: Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI) has urged the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to form business friendly policies and promote consultation culture with the stakeholders as steps like attaching business bank accounts for recovery of outstanding dues are hampering business growth.
In a statement issued here on Monday, LCCI Vice President Syed Mahmood Ghaznavi said that steps like attachment of accounts would push tax payers to the wall besides denting the reputation of a business-friendly government.
He said that attachment of the bank accounts should be the last option but the RTOs are wasting no time in taking punitive action to meet the revenue targets. He said that the FBR was constituted to facilitate the businessmen but it is presently going the other way.
The LCCI Vice president said that FBR, instead of focusing on controlling under-invoicing and curbing the menace of smuggling, expanding tax net, is interested in cases for recovery of outstanding dues and attaching bank accounts.
He said it is unfortunate that FBR is not releasing what it owes to business community and instead creating problems for businessmen through recovery of outstanding dues just to meet its revenue targets.
He said it is very unfortunate that when FBR initiates a case for recovery against any tax payer, he is not given any opportunity to plead his case, as FBR itself is the complainant and judge. What justice one can expect of such an institution, the LCCI Vice President asked.
