LAHORE: Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI) President Sheikh Muhammad Arshad Tuesday urged the government to resolve issues of double taxation and delay in refund claims as soon as possible to ensure economic growth at fast pace.
He was talking to a delegation of Liberty and other major city markets led by Irfan Iqbal Sheikh here at the LCCI, while the Chamber's Vice President Nasir Saeed also spoke on the occasion. Traders, who attended the meeting were Yousaf Khan, Hafiz Ameer Ali Awan, Umer Chaudhry, Mian Zahid Javed, Nasir Mahmood, Mian Muhammad Farid, Ghulam Mustafa, Abdul Majeed, Aas Muhammad, Ihsan Anjum, Tariq Mahboob, Kamran Saleem, Sohail Sarfraz Munj, Dr. Masood Alam, Ismail Khan, Ahsen Mahmood, Muhammad Anwar Bajwa, Asim Bashir, Roy Zafar, Rana Bashir Ahmed, Mukhtar Ali, Javed Iqbal Siddiqui, Zahid Maqsood Butt, Asim Javaid, Masood Nizami, Imran Iqbal, Farhat Majeed Adil, Rasheed Roy, Rizwan Shamsi and Rehmatullah Javed. Sheikh Muhammad Arshad urged the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to pay attention towards double taxation for running the businesses smoothly.
He cited that after 18th Amendment, provinces had developed their own legislations and rules for the administration of Sales Tax on Services.
"It is argued in the light of various international studies that the ideal Sales Tax system is perhaps a uniform national one where the distinction between commodity (goods) and services is artificially eliminated and the system is made uniformly and seemlessly applicable on both goods and services across the country," he maintained.
However, as this ideal appeared to be a non-practical venture in Pakistan where provinces were determined to manage the collection of sales tax on services at their own level with constitutional backing.
Keeping this in view, he added, a uniform system could be worked out by the FBR and provincial authorities collaborating to streamline the tax treatments and rates to ensure a more uniform atmosphere for businesses which would result in increased GDP and taxation revenues.
The LCCI President mentioned that major issues faced by the taxpayers at present were jurisdiction disputes, double taxation between provinces, non-uniformity of provincial laws, structural issues in Provincial Revenue collection bodies, and overall lack of collaboration and harmonization.
He suggested that in order to facilitate the taxpayers, the business environment and thereby the provincial economies, there should be harmonization and collaboration between Provincial revenue collection bodies (PRCB) and the FBR, standardization of general tax treatments in the jurisdictions of various PRCB and FBR, standardization of sales tax rates across industries and sectors in the jurisdictions of various PRCB and FBR, resolving structural issues and capacity building at PRCB and FBR and resolution of 'jurisdiction' disputes and agreement regarding provincial 'double taxation' and differential 'categorization' by the PRCB and FBR. Sheikh Muhammad Arshad also urged the Federal Board of Revenue to expedite stuck-up sales tax and income refund claims as this issue had caused shortage of capital to the industry, citing that delay in refund claims was hampering the growth of the most productive sectors.
"Delay in release of refund that runs into billions has triggered serious liquidity crunch for the exporters and manufacturers that might lead to closure of several industrial units," he apprehended.
The LCCI President urged the authorities concerned to simplify the process to get refunds and ensure early release of Sales Tax and Income Tax refunds.
He also urged the federal and Punjab governments to put comprehensive measures to ensure business friendly atmosphere, citing that it would not only encourage local investors and help trust building between the businessmen and government departments but also give a good message to the foreign investors.
Earlier, Head of the delegation Irfan Iqbal Sheikh called for simplification of taxation system. He said that a simplified and friendly taxation system would encourage businessmen to come into the tax net.
He called for a tax-free budget for the year 2016-17 to achieve high economic growth.
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