Business Community demands abolition of CNIC condition in next budget
- May 19, 2020
The business community has demanded of the government to
abolish the mandatory CNIC condition for transactions of Rs.50,000/- and above
in the next budget as it has created lot of problems for them in running business
activities smoothly.
Muhammad Ahmed Waheed, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce &
Industry (ICCI) said that government has made mandatory for citizens to show
CNIC on making purchases of Rs.50,000/- and above from a sales tax registered
person, but this condition has proved quite problematic. He said that keeping in
view the current difficult conditions for businesses caused by the Covid-19,
government should either completely abolish CNIC condition or increase the
limit of transactions for showing CNIC from Rs.50,000/- to Rs.200,000/- that
would provide sufficient relief to businessmen.
He said that the impact of Covid-19 has caused huge losses to businesses due to
which were fighting for their survival. This situation that government should
come up with more relief measures to business community in the next budget so
that they could be able to revive business activities. He said that in the prevailing
circumstances, it would not be possible for government to broaden tax base and
stressed that instead of putting more burden on existing taxpayers, government
should facilitate them through budgetary measures that would also improve tax
revenue for the government.
ICCI President said that government should defer random audit of taxpayers for
next few years and accept their tax returns as they have been submitted. He said
that those cases selected for random audit should also be deferred and their tax
returns should be accepted. He said that at a time when businessmen were
struggling to keep their businesses in running mode, government should take
strong measures to create conducive environment for business activities instead
of focusing on improving tax revenue. He said that tax revenue was directly
linked with growth of businesses and promoting businesses should be the first
priority of government that would automatically improve its tax revenue as well.
Muhammad Ahmed Waheed Said that the current taxation system was quite
complicated and cumbersome that was encouraging tax evasion instead of
promoting tax culture. He urged that government should focus on developing a
fair, transparent, business friendly and easy for compliance tax regime that
should play role in boosting business activities instead of burdening existing
taxpayers with more taxes.