President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF), President All Karachi Industrial Alliance (AKIA), Senior Vice Chairman of the Businessmen Panel of FPCCI and former provincial minister, Mian Zahid Hussain on Wednesday said that extension in tax return filing till March 31, 2019 is appreciative measure of FBR. Tax collection should be made easy, convenient for the tax payers. For increased collection, tax base should be increased and tax payers should be dealt with honour and grace.

The Veteran Business Leader told the business community the black sheeps are harassing the genuine tax payers and creating fear in the environment, which is harmful to the business community as well as the tax collection. Government should take action against such people who are misbehaving with tax payers. Tax collection has increased multiple times over the year which became possible due to the cooperation extended by the business community. Tax target for current fiscal year was set to be Rs. 4.4 trillion which cannot be achieved as around Rs. 2 trillion has so far collected. Easy tax collection system for small traders in Islamabad is still under process.

The Former Minister said that around Rs. 191 billion has lost in reduced tax collection from ten major sectors including telecom, petroleum, stock exchange, banking, automobile, food products and custom duty, etc., which cannot be compensated. Banks profits have been decreased by 10 percent causing loss of Rs. 2 billion. Accordingly, the stock market has not been stable during the period which has caused loss of Rs. 5 billion to tax collection.

Mian Zahid Hussain said that measures to reform tax system are vital. FBR regulations are somehow helpful to the big and medium enterprises but not in accordance to the needs of micro and small level businesses due to which small traders do not opt to be in the tax net while they are leading in charity. Tax amnesty and tax on bank transactions could not draw better impact as current tax laws are not in accordance to the needs of small traders therefore a new tax authority should be formed for this sector which fulfil their needs. Government revenue will be doubled through this and fiscal issues can be addressed.