Government urged to protect taxpayers' rights

Friends of Economic and Business Reforms (FEBR) has urged the government to introduce legislation for protection of the existing taxpayers' rights. Friends of Economic and Business Reforms (FEBR) President Kashif Anward said that non-filers, who are outside the tax net, are not accounted for at all, which discourages businesses to come into the tax net. The registered businesses are required to comply with various departments involving a lot of financial and time resources, whereas unregistered businesses are free from all such hassles, he added.
In the past, instead of focusing on controlling under-invoicing, curbing smuggling and expanding the tax net, the FBR seems to be inclined to pressurize registered taxpayers, who are already suffering due to a high rate of sales tax, income tax, and custom duties by creating fictitious cases for recovery of outstanding dues to meet revenue target, he said.
The businesses are already in a complicated state-of-affairs, while anti-business actions against business community were not only adding to the miseries of the business community but are also promoting trust deficit between the government and the business community, he added.
He also asked the government to also launch an amnesty scheme for the filers and tax payers in line with the Assets Declaration Scheme being introduced for the non-filers. He asked the economic team of the government to respect existing taxpayers and safeguard their rights by legislation against the misuse of discretionary powers by the FBR.
"Create harmonization between Sales Tax & Income Tax laws by removing those provisions which conflict with each other, he said and suggested to enhance tax base by automation and integration of revenue departments with other public entities" he maintained. Stressing the need for relief in the upcoming federal budget 2019-20, the FEBR President pointed out that filers must be exempted from tax audits for at least next three years. The tax payers are maintaining their documentations and being regular income tax filers must be given relief in the budget, he added.
He asked the government to take additional measures to incentivize exports and taking other measures to ease the cost of doing business and improving the overall regulatory regime to facilitate exporters. He said that the rate of income tax may be reduced from current 25 percent to 20 percent for small companies and small companies should be exempted from being withholding agent to deduct taxes and file statements.