ISLAMABAD: The experts on Monday urged the government to increase the Tax to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio by exploring new avenues for broadening the tax regime.
Speaking at a Pre-Budget Seminar 2012-13 organized by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) here, former Principle Economic Advisor to Finance Ministry, Saqib Sherani said that the country's economy was not fully documented and it must be documented and in addition, the efforts should be made to bring non-filers and evaders of the tax in the tax base in order to enhance revenues for the prosperity of the country.
He said was of the view that only 2 million peoples were tax payers in the country and out of those, 1.2 million were salaried persons and the remaining belonged to the business communities.
"However, more than 0.776 million non-tax payers have been identified by the government who must be brought in the tax net", he added.
Replying to a question, he said that of total debt of the country, 45 per cent was transferred to the present government from the Musharaf regime.
The devaluation of Rupee in October 2008 caused an increase in national debt by 27 per cent while the remaining difference was due to the price difference in the petroleum which was not adjusted by the previous regime of former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
Moreover, he said that over 65 per cent of total amount of divisible pool was transferred to the provinces including 57.5 per cent under NFC award.
The remaining amount was transferred to the provinces under the head of cost of war on terror, royalty on Hydel to Khyber Pakhtunkhawa (KPK) and to Balochistan under of gas and oil surcharge.
"The center was left with limited sources to bear all expenses, debt serving, defence and other operating expenses", he added.
Speaking on the occasion, Executive Director SDPI, Dr. Abid Qaiyum Suleri urged the government to solve the circular debt by prioritizing the issues.
He said that all options should be exploited to resolve the energy crisis in the country and in this regard, the development of Thar coal project was the best option.
"However, GENCOs should be allowed to import the oil for power generation and even the companies are permitted to open the Letter of Credit (L/C)", he added.
Research fellow and Head, Economic Growth Unit SDPI, Dr. Vaqar Ahmed said that the incentives and rewards should be introduced to attract and motivate the non-tax payers to pay their due taxes.
"In this regard, the separate counters and receptions in schools, hospitals and other public places should be established for tax-payers and non-tax payers in the country", he added.
He said that the remittance were increasing every passing day and must be brought in the tax net and the proposal of housing monetization policy should not affect the lower grade-employee of the government.
The representative of Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI), Mian Ramzan said that the government should introduce consistent policy which must last for at least more than 5 years because the investment made by the businessmen was for not less than 5 years and short-term policy affects the business.
Comments
Comments are closed.