Our Correspondent
Karachi
Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Dr. Muhammad Ashfaq Ahmad has said that for the next budget, FBR’s priority is to cut the cost of doing business, get rid of excessive taxation, reduce compliance cost and set businesses free so that they could have minimum interaction with tax authorities and could focus on expanding their business and industrial activities.
Speaking at a meeting during his visit to the Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI) on Friday, Member IR said that FBR was a stakeholder of 30 to 35 percent in whatever was being earned which was being collected in shape of Sales Tax, Income Tax or Withholding Tax etc. hence, it was in FBR’s interest to make businesses successful and cut the cost.
Chairman Businessmen Group & Former President KCCI Zubair Motiwala, Vice Chairman BMG Anjum Nisar, President KCCI M. Shariq Vohra, Senior Vice President M. Saqib Goodluck, Vice President Shamsul Islam Khan and KCCI Managing Committee Members along with Chief Commissioners of FBR were also present on the occasion.
Member IR stated that FBR receives thousands of budgetary proposals every year but they hardly get time to read them because of limited time available hence, the Karachi Chamber and all other Chambers should immediately take their budget proposals to the Technical Committee formed by Finance Minister, get them refined and after due diligence, only doable recommendations should be forwarded to FBR. “I give you my word that we will try to implement maximum number of doable recommendations”, he assured.
He further informed that as per figure issued by the State Bank of Pakistan, the offtake of working capital has come down which was due to improved performance of FASTER in quickly processing the sales tax refund claims.
