Chairman of National Business Group Pakistan, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum, and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Wednesday said the efforts of Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin to automate the tax system and expand the tax base are commendable.
He said that the business community supports these efforts which are imperative to get rid of the economic mess.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that the survival of the country is impossible without modernizing the tax system, so it should be reformed without delay.
Talking to the business community the veteran business leader said that the Finance Minister wanted to more than double revenue for which it would be necessary to expand the tax base.
The Finance Minister is striving to make the tax system simple and automated so that taxpayers can easily pay their taxes.
The FM wants to abolish dozens of indirect taxes and impose an income tax and consumption tax in which the business community will cooperate with him, he said, adding that the harassment of existing taxpayers must be avoided.
He observed that Pakistan’s tax system targets the poor and middle class through indirect taxes, while influential individuals and business groups easily dodge the system to avoid discharging their obligations.
The poor and the middle class are paying exorbitant taxes, while a large segment is not paying taxes due to non-registration and the government is facing a huge deficit, which necessitates the reduction of development expenditure.
He noted that infrastructure development is also affected and loans have to be taken from all over the world to finance expenditures.
Mian Zahid Hussain further said that all over the world electronic technology is used for tax assessment and collection but some elements in Pakistan consider it against their interests therefore in Pakistan this system is still in the hands of clerks.
Notices are also a major cause of revenue shortages and other problems. Whenever the government tries to improve the tax system, many elements take to the streets to blackmail it and a series of protests break out, forcing the government to reverse its decision.
Negotiations have been tried many times after harassment which has not worked and now the government should consider raising taxes by introducing a business-friendly, forward-looking, fair system through technology.
