Government should immediately withdraw SRO-608 to save business community from further problems and pursue a policy of equitable taxation system to broaden tax net in order to improve tax revenue, stressed Muhammad Shakeel Munir, Acting President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry. 

 

He said all major chambers of the country have already expressed strong opposition to the levy of tax at retail level and called upon the FBR to withdraw SRO 608(I)/2014 as in the presence of huge smuggling and under invoicing, it would not be a possible for the government to achieve desired results from said SRO.

 

Shakeel Munir said at a time when the business community was facing many challenges including gas and electricity shortages and was looking for relief package from the government, FBR was adopting arm-twisting tactics by issuing anti-business SROs. He said the new taxation measures like SRO-608 were bound to create more difficulties to the efforts aimed at reviving business and economic activities. 

 

He said it was unfortunate that instead of withdrawing concessions & exemptions and bringing all untaxed sectors into the tax net, government was taking coercive steps to squeeze the existing taxpayers. He said before implementing taxation at retail level, government should take strong policy measures to eliminate smuggling and under-invoicing. 

 

Acting President ICCI said business community was fully cognizant of the need of improving tax-to-GDP ratio, but such objectives could not be achieved by taking unilateral measures, rather government could achieve positive results through facilitating traders and industrialists. 

 

He was of the view that only a fair taxation system backed up by long-term stability could salvage the country out of current challenges and put it on sustainable economic growth.