The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that FBR is reportedly working in collaboration with provinces to introduce a single tax portal for taxpayers to file their sales tax returns of goods and services at one platform, which was a laudable initiative as it would greatly facilitate them in filing sales tax returns and reduce the cost of doing business. The move would also contribute towards improving ease of doing business in the country.
Ahmed Hassan Moughal President, Rafat Farid Senior Vice President and Iftikhar Anwar Sethi Vice President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry said that under the current sales tax regime, businesses are facing difficulties in filing sales tax returns of goods and services as they have to file returns of goods at federal and that of services at provincial level. However, they said that with the introduction of online single tax portal, all taxpayers will be able to file their sales tax returns of goods and services at a single window that would be a great facilitation for them.
Ahmed Hassan Moughal said that under the current sales tax regime, filers are also facing double taxation as some provinces are taxing a service at the place of origin while the same service is also being taxed at the place of destination in another province. Therefore, he urged that FBR should work on this issue to minimize the chances of double taxation.
ICCI President further stressed that FBR should implement one national sales tax regime as the prime benefit of one sales tax structure is that Pakistan would become a common market. He said that under the single sales tax regime, one product or service will have a single tax rate in any part of the country instead of multiplicity of taxes on the same commodity or service in various parts of the country. He said that introduction of a single sales tax regime will also facilitate better growth of business activities as trade and industry will have a much lesser compliance burden. It will also provide a level playing field to domestic manufacturers vis-à-vis imported goods. He said that some countries have already implemented one sales tax structure and Pakistan should also seriously consider it to facilitate the growth of business activities and improve tax revenue of the country.
Ahmed Hassan Moughal was of the view that the introduction of a single national sales tax structure would bring multiple benefits to the economy as it would improve the ease of doing business, make Pakistan an integrated economy and facilitate the seamless transfer of goods and services across the country.