LAHORE - LCCI President Abdul Basit Raids has accused Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) of practicing anti-business tactics and urged Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar to take notice of the situation.

In a statement issued here, the LCCI president, LCCI Senior Vice President Amjad Ali Jawa and LCCI Vice President Muhammad Nasir Hameed Khan said that misuse of section 38-B is grinding the business community, adding that such situation would cause huge damage not only to the business activities but to the government’s reputation as well.

They said that Section 38-B of Sales Tax Act, 1990 is being harmfully used by the officials of tax department. They are visiting markets and business premises to unjustifiably harass the business people. They said that teams from tax department should visit the markets, if necessary, but they should immediately stop harassing business community.

The LCCI office-bearers said that FBR should stop harassing filers as non-filers. They said that those outside the tax net are not accounted for at all which discourages businesses to come into the tax net. Registered businesses are required to comply with various departments involving a lot of financial and time resources whereas unregistered businesses are free from all such hassles, they added.

They said that there are 3.5 million registered taxpayers out of which only around 1 million file their tax returns. The government should take all the measures to ensure filing of returns by remaining 2.5 million individuals and businesses. The government claims that it always acts as a facilitator but in this scenario it is entirely otherwise, they added.

They said that attaching bank accounts for recovery of outstanding dues is hampering business growth and tarnishing the business-friendly image of the government. They said that bank accounts should not be attached without prior notice to the taxpayer and after seeking approval in writing of the commissioner in the light of reply submitted by the taxpayer. The recovery should be after the decision of the tribunal and not before that.

They said that unfortunately if the FBR initiates a recovery case, the taxpayer is not allowed to defend as FBR itself is the complainant and a judge. Instead of focusing on controlling under-invoicing, curbing smuggling and expanding the tax net, the FBR seems to be inclined to pressurise registered taxpayers - who are already suffering due to high rate of sales tax, income tax and custom duties - by creating fictitious cases for recovery of outstanding dues to meet revenue target, they added.

It is pertinent to mention here that all trade chambers have hanged banners against FBR raids.