LAHORE  - There is an urgent need to resolve the issue of withholding tax on bank transactions to avoid further losses to the banking industry.
Senior Vice President Lahore Businessmen Front Tahir Malik said this while talking to APP Forum here on Sunday.
He said that a vast majority of business community was not interested in strikes and protests as they want to do result-oriented dialogue with the government for resolving their issues.
The loss which the business community, the government and the whole economy is facing due to strikes is in billions of rupees, he added.
He dispelled the impression that businessmen don’t want to pay taxes and said, “Our people want to pay taxes on rational basis and want to extend all out cooperation with the government for expanding the tax net”.
He said that non-filers of income tax returns should be brought into tax net and the business community was ready to provide all out cooperation in this regard.
“Banks are collecting taxes from filers and non-filers as they have no mechanism to differentiate between them”, he said. He said that FBR should make arrangements for providing facility to the banks for enabling them to avoid charging withholding from filers.
He urged the government to take practical and result-oriented steps in this regard and assured that business community would provide all out assistance.
To a question regarding expansion of the tax-to-GDP ratio of the country, he said, “We are not hurdle in it and we are ready to extend all out cooperation in this regard”. He called for taking steps to control tax theft and include the new tax payers in the tax net. He suggested that incentives should be announced for different tax collectorate in the country on the basis of their collection targets. He did not agree with the question that the percentage of taxes in Pakistan is low as compared to other countries of the region.
“UAE is also in the same region where taxes are very nominal and the country is moving fast on the development track”, he said. About Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry elections being held next month, he said that Lahore Business Front (LBF) would take active part in it.
“We are confident of our success in the elections as we have an agenda of reforms of LCCI. “We will bring back lost dignity for the members of the chamber and reorganize Research and Development Department of the LCCI”, he said.
Foreign delegations and tours of LCCI would be arranged on the basis of merit to expand trade and investment of the country, he added.