ISLAMABAD: The Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue has endorsed the proposal moved by the representatives of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) that Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) should focus on expanding tax net rather than pressurizing and harassing the existing taxpayers.
“In a bid to increase the revenue collection, the FBR needs to bring more and more people into the tax net,” a delegation led by LCCI President Abdul Basit and comprising other members from various sectors of business moved the proposal in the meeting of the committee here.
The delegation was on a visit to Parliament House on the invitation of Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and later attended the meeting of the finance committee which met here with the Chairman Qaiser Ahmad Sheikh in the chair.
LCCI delegation told the committee that there was 30 percent decline in the number of filers as compared to the previous year; therefore, the FBR should be requested from the floor of the committee to extend the date for the filing of income tax returns until December 31, 2016. Last year, the number of filers was 1.1 million but only 525,000 have filed their returns till now.
The committee was told that due to problems in FBR’s IRIS system, a large number of businessmen could not file their returns till December 15 despite the fact that business community wanted to perform national obligations. The committee endorsed almost all the observations of the LCCI delegation.
The LCCI president suggested that a national industrial policy should be formulated and new avenues should be explored to increase exports. He also suggested for incentivizing local industrial sector and inclusion of local investors in the Special Economic Zones. The committee appreciated the concerns of the industrial sector and assured them that their concerns would be taken up at the appropriate forum.
The sub-committee on Companies Ordinance 2016 was recomposed under the convenership of Daniyal Aziz because the existing convener Pervaiz, Malik had expressed unavailability to handle the matter in an appropriate manner.
The ordinance is aimed at giving impetus to the economy and the economic growth in the country and it will also provide relief to the corporate sector, especially small and medium size companies.
For this purpose, Daniyal Aziz sought a comparative statement from the Finance Ministry comprising proposed amendments in the Companies Ordinance 2016 along with original draft of the ordinance.
Earlier, Secretary, Statistics Division briefed the committee about the working and performance of the division and its attached departments. He also briefed the committee on the preparation for holding of national census. The Secretary apprised that Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) had been mandated to conduct national census in March, 2017 throughout the country in two phases.
He further informed that in compliance to the decision of Council of Common Interest, PBS had geared up to take-up this national assignment and had completed most of the arrangements that include coordination meetings with provincial authorities, setting up of district census offices, appointment and training of field staff and publicity campaign for the awareness of the general masses.
