The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) has welcomed the assurance of Shabbar Zaidi, Chairman FBR for not carrying out raids on places of registered taxpayers for collection of income tax and sales tax and termed it a positive approach as it would reduce the element of harassment from the business community and enable them to focus on promoting business activities with more confidence.
Tahir Abbasi Acting President and Saif ur Rahman Khan Vice President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry said that ICCI has always supported the initiatives to broaden the tax base as without improving tax revenue, achieving sustainable economic development was not possible. They said that chambers of commerce were already playing positive role in promoting formal economy and stressed that FBR should develop a mechanism to maintain regular liaison with these trade bodies to resolve tax issues and improve tax revenue with joint efforts. They said that business community was playing key role in the economic development of the country, but carrying out raids by FBR on business premises was hurting the self-respect and tarnishing the image of businesspersons in society, therefore, such approaches should be avoided.
They stressed that to curb the smuggling, the performance of FBR officials posted at borders and ports should be further improved as smuggling was done in connivance with customs officials while raids were carried out at retailers. They said that retailers were only selling goods and they were issued sales tax invoices while payments were made through cross cheque. Therefore, strict checking of importers was required to cope with this issue.
ICCI Office Bearers said that situation in the federal capital was better but raids by FBR teams in any part of Pakistan on business premises always triggered a wave of harassment in the business community of the country. They said that if FBR has any genuine tax complaint against any businessperson, the department should first take chamber of commerce & industry or market union of the concerned area on board to address such issues with mutual efforts. They were of the view that a relationship of trust and confidence between the tax collectors and taxpayers was needed to achieve better results for the economy. They hoped that FBR would take more positive initiatives to build a relationship of partnership with business community so that with joint efforts, tax revenue of the country could be improved and Pakistan could be put on the path of sustainable economic growth.