The business community is already under a great burden due to a number of taxes and in the prevailing circumstances, levying of any new tax will create multiple problems for the business community and common man, has said Mr.Mahfooz Elahi, President of Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry addressing a meeting at ICCI.

He said that the cabinet has approved the “Reformed General Sales Tax (RGST) bill to generate additional revenues, which would start a new wave of inflation and put a very negative impact on the business activities.

President said that due to recent flood in the country, the economic activity has already gone down, and imposing of 10 percent flood surcharge on taxable income is a very harsh step by the government. He said that this approach will put more economic burden on the salaried class, which is already facing huge problems due to unprecedented raise in the prices of daily consumer items and tariffs of electricity, gas and petroleum products.

Mr.Mahfooz Elahi said that business community is voluntarily contributing in the economic development of the country, and by force imposition of taxes, will create an atmosphere unrest and further distrust on the government policies. He criticized these measures of the government and said this move will further slowdown the business activities in the country, which is already in a bad shape.

He said that government instead of taking growth oriented measures, focusing on those initiatives, which would never put the country on the right track of economic development.

The hard times are still going on due to overall economic scenario of the country including power shortages and in such times, levying further taxes will be an additional burden on the existing taxpayers, Mahfooz Elahi said.

He added that instead of finding new taxpayers and other avenues of generating revenues, existing taxpayers are being burdened, which is not a right policy of the government. He underlined the need to boost the morale of the taxpayers to bring more people in the tax net and said that policy of milking the same cow, would discourage others to pay due taxes.

President of Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry said that Government before levying any additional tax must discuss its pros and cons with the representatives of the business community to have its successful implementation.

Mr.Mahfooz Elahi said that reformed GST and imposition of flood surcharge is not acceptable to the business community as it will increase inflation and cost of doing business and demanded its immediate withdrawal by the government.