Saturday, April 12, 2008, Rabi-ul-Sani 5,1429    

ICAP holds pre budget seminar

Karachi—The speakers at a seminar have suggested that the government should reduce the volume and number of indirect taxes and increase the share of direct taxes by taking more people and sectors in to tax base. They were expressing their views at a Pre-Budget Seminar 2008, held at a local hotel. The moot was organized by the Southern Regional Committee of Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP). The seminar was widely attended by the ICAP’s members, tax consultants and others. The speakers also asked the government to make its economic policies consistent that should be based upon the ground realities.

The Director General of Regional Tax Office (RTO) Karachi, Asrar Rauf, who was the chief guest at the occasion, said in his address that the Federal Board of Revenue is striving to include the unregulated sectors of the economy into the tax base. Quoting the World Bank report on emerging economies, he said that Pakistan is at 76 out of 178 countries those were listed by the WB in the report. While, he added, the China posses the rank of 83 and India of 122. Rauf ruled out the impression that people do not want to pay tax in the country and maintained that the facilitation and proper education could increase the tax base and tax volume.

He claimed that the government could bring what he called the ‘White Revolution’ by promoting dairy farming that could generate near four billion dollar to the national exchequer. Rauf was of the view that the FBR is going to replace the NTN system with the new one in which the CNIC (computerized national identity card) number would serve as the identity of individual taxpayer. While for the companies, the number of their registration with the Security Exchange Commission of Pakistan would be the tax identity. An economist Dr. Shahida Wazarat urged the government to adopt the targeted approach for the promotion of the industries in the country by keeping the ground realities in view.—APP