KARACHI: Mian Zahid Hussain, President of Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum and All Karachi Industrial Alliance and Chairman of National Business Group Pakistan and Policy Advisory Board of the FPCCI, has demanded of the government to introduce a single-page, pre-filed tax returns for salaried taxpayers.
The FBR already receives salary and deducted tax information from employers. Therefore, taxpayers should not be required to provide the same information twice.
He said that the Asaan Tajir App should be made available in English, Urdu, Sindhi, Pashto and Balochi languages.
Its Apple version, web portal and assisted return-filing facility should also be provided free of charge.
He said that a one percent turnover tax could disproportionately affect businesses with high turnover but low profit margins.
For a business earning a five-percent net margin, this tax would be equal to 20 percent of its profit.
The FBR should examine the profit margins of different sectors and also determine whether the Rs200 million annual turnover ceiling represented an appropriate definition of a small shopkeeper.
He said that the government should regularly publish data on new filers, tax collection, Green Plates issued and complaints received.
After a reasonable facilitation period, businesses deliberately remaining outside both the Asaan Tajir Scheme and the normal tax regime should face fair, technology-based but non-coercive enforcement.
He welcomed the launch of the Asaan Tajir App, calling it a necessary step towards broadening the tax base, simplifying compliance and reducing unnecessary interaction between small traders and FBR officials.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that the Asaan Tajir App was announced at a joint press conference by Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb, Minister of State for Finance, Bilal Azhar Kayani, and FBR Chairman Rashid Mahmood Langrial.
This initiative of the government would help bring millions of undocumented retailers into the formal economy.
He said that under the new scheme, eligible owners of a single shop had been provided with a single-page return, simple registration and the facility to pay tax equal to one percent of the annual turnover, subject to a minimum annual payment of Rs25,000.
The Urdu interface, facilitation arrangements and proposed Green Plate for tax-compliant traders were encouraging measures.
He said that the government’s assurance that the FBR officials would not visit the shops of Green Plate holders should be made binding by virtue of law.
An independent and time-bound mechanism should also be established to resolve complaints relating to unnecessary notices, visits or demands.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that the scheme aimed to bring approximately 4.2 million small traders and shopkeepers into the tax net.
Even if only one million traders joined the scheme and paid the minimum tax, the national exchequer could receive Rs25 billion annually.
He said that salaried taxpayers paid approximately Rs633 billion in income tax during FY2025-26, while around Rs70 billion was collected from the wholesale and retail supply chain under Sections 236G and 236Hof the withholding provisions.
This difference showed that the existing tax system relied mainly on salaried people and businesses that paid their taxes regularly, and those segments could not bear further burden. Mian Zahid Hussain said that people already in the tax net should be facilitated instead of being treated coercively.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
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