ISLAMABAD: Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) Monday urged the government for taking measures for business friendly tax reforms to broaden the tax base so that taxpayers could willingly come forward to pay tax and ensure voluntary compliance of tax laws.
ICCI President Ahmed Hassan Moughal in a statement Monday said the prevailing complex tax system was a major hurdle in expanding the tax net, therefore, a simple tax system with low tax rates and low compliance cost was the need of the hour to enhance the tax revenue of the country.
He said in an effort to widen the tax net and ensure tax compliance across the country, the government has initiated a massive drive for the recovery of taxes from big and influential tax evaders.
However, he stressed that such drive should not create any kind of unnecessary harassment in the business community and the taxpayers.
Ahmed Hassan Moughal said if FBR has authentic information about any genuine tax evading businessman, the department should first take the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the respective region on board so that instead of taking any harsh measures, genuine tax evaders could be brought into the tax net with mutual efforts.
He urged the government for developing a tax system that encourage people to pay tax instead of evading it.
He said the high tax rates in the country were also promoting the culture of tax evasion and government should revise tax rates to make them affordable for taxpayers.
Ahmed asked for making the current tax system fair as presently industry was paying highest tax to the national exchequer while the share of agriculture and services sectors was quite low as compared to their share to the GDP.
He emphasized that the government should take measures to remove such distortions from the taxation system to make it equal and fair for all sectors of the economy.
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