ISLAMABAD: Senator Nuzhat Sadiq, an active member of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs, Statistics and Privatization, has said that payment of taxes is a must to improve the national economy.
In an exclusive interview with Customs Today, she said that there is a need to create awareness about tax culture in the country as the government needs money to spend on the public welfare projects.
Replying a question about recently announced new taxes of Rs 40 billion, she said that the government had decided to impose regulatory duty on luxury items to bridge shortfall in revenue collection. She said that an incentive package has been announced for potential taxpayers to increase tax net
Imports of luxury items have gone up over the past few months and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar is not happy with the trend as the substantial increase in imports of luxury items was a worrisome factor for the government and while government was working on various proposals to curtail them.
She said that it was unfortunate that no one willing to pay taxes in full quantity and wished to find out ways and means to evade taxes. Therefore, this national approach towards the payment of taxes needs to the changed which is possible only by dint of mass awareness campaign.
Appreciating the economic and financial policies of the government, she said that finance minister Ishaq Dar was leaving no stone unturned to lift national economy up and fruits and yields of his hard work had started emerging.
Pakistani economic uplift has not only been recognized by the local monetary institutions, but international monetary organizations and rating agencies have also acknowledged it and it is positive signs for national prestige in the world.
She said that the government had increased tax net up to 33% and there was a dire need of tax reforms in the system to make it more effective. Moreover, steps are being taken to make Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) tax-friendly in order to encourage the masses for paying their taxes. This is why inflation rate has come down due to the prudent policies of the government, besides an increase in foreign reserves.
Even, Senator added that all local and foreign economic indicators had been pointing out marvelous economic revival in result of economic policies followed by the government. This is why International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank (WB), Asian Development Bank (ADB), USAID, AUAID, JICA, DFID and number of other international institutions have extended their full cooperation to the current government.
She also observed that results of by-elections, first and second phases of local government elections and even results of local government in the federal capital were expression of public confidence in the economic policies which had brought country out of economic crisis. Country’s foreign exchange reserves have also touched a historical highest volume, which have crossed the figures of $ 20 billion.
To a question about, tax reforms and facilitations for the taxpayers, Senator Nuzhat Sadiq said that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) should focus on make the tax filling system more and more easy so that common people could easily file their income tax returns.
Moreover, she said that tax collectors should avoid creating an environment of fear for new taxpayers because people are afraid of coming into tax-net and tend to remain non-filers. Actually, people want to pay taxes if they have confidence in honest expenditure of their tax money.
Our government has initiated mega projects like Metro Bus Service, Orange Train as well as overlaying and repair of Motorway (M-2) which had been pending for a number of years, these development works give confidence to public about accurate and correct use of their tax-money.
Moreover, she said that tax rate must also be rational so that everyone may easily pay without feeling any extra burden. In developed countries, people pay taxes just because of the fact they get incentives and facilities in return of their tax-money.
She hoped that government would over come the energy crisis by 2018. Once the government comes up to commitment of eliminating energy crisis from the country, it will be easy for our party to contest general elections 2018 after fulfilling the main agenda of election manifesto for which PML-N had been granted mandate by the people of Pakistan in general elections 2013.
She also hailed the government’s steps for reforming the tax system and proposed grant of wider mandate to Tax Reforms Commission to enable it studying and modernizing the design of the tax system, not merely tweaking more revenue within the current year.
Similarly, she proposed that granting constitutional protection to tenures of the chairman and members will be an important start as well as instituting a full-fledged organisational development (OD) programme for FBR and undertaking a major overhaul of FBR’s IT systems and software development processes. If done, these steps will represent a true break from the recent past and leave a reform legacy for the PML-N government.
Brief Profile
Senator Nuzhat Sadiq belongs to a political family. She belongs to the PML-N (Pakistan Muslim League) party. Presently, she is an active member of Senate Standing Committees on Climate Change, Defence Production, Senate Finance Committee as well as Chairperson Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs. Being active in Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue, she had been successfully defending government against strong criticism from the opposition members.
She has also been member of the National Assembly and was a founder of the Women’s Parliamentary Caucus in 2008, serving as treasurer and later general secretary of the group.
Over the past decade, she has championed bills ranging from an act to combat domestic violence to a law against harassment in the workplace and another aimed at preventing acid attacks. She also pushed successfully for a law creating the National Commission on the Status of Women, an oversight body with counterparts at the provincial level.