FEDERATION of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) President Atif Ikram Sheikh has said that the FPCCI fully supports efforts to ramp up the tax-to-GDP ratio, which can be achieved through broadening the tax base and simplifying the taxation system, rather than further squeezing the already taxed people. He was of the view that tax and FBR reforms should not be undertaken without consultation and to achieve the tax-to-GDP ratio of 15% in the next five years we will have to add 1.5 to 2 million new taxpayers to the tax net.
Industrialists and businessmen are important stakeholders of the taxation system and therefore, their input and active cooperation means much for the success of any reform or plan. Luckily, the FPCCI President is mindful of the fact that there was a need to expand the tax base but he differs from the traditional approach of realizing this objective by putting more burdens on the existing and honest tax-payers. His statement is a reflection of the universal consensus that there was no more room to add to the burden of existing tax-payers and instead genuine efforts should be made to identify evaders and bring them into the tax net. In this connection, the Government has already made a beginning by initiating the process of voluntary registration of small traders and hopefully the business community would extend fullest possible cooperation to make this process a success as a majority of the members of the business community are still out of tax net even after 75 years of independence. It is encouraging that the FPCCI has also supported end-to-end digitization of FBR, an exercise that new Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has already initiated. It is, however, unfortunate that the objective of simplification of the tax system has not been realized despite repeated claims in this regard and this should be done without loss of further time.
