LAHORE - The newly-appointed Federal Board of Revenue Chairman Nisar Khan has said Pakistan’s future is linked to promotion of a tax culture and said the board was determined to improve the tax-to-GDP ratio to make Pakistan a respectable and self-sustaining nation, requesting support from the business community in this regard.

Nisar Khan was talking to a delegation of United Business Group of FPCCI, comprising TDAP Chief Executive S.M Muneer, FPCCI presidential candidate Abdul Rauf Alam, M. Khalid, Tariq Sadiq, Malik Sohail and ICCI president Atif Ikram Sheikh. The UBG delegation met with the FBR chief led by its chairman Iftikhar Malik.
FBR member customs, member income tax, Member Inland Revenue Policy and Member Admn were also present in the meeting.
The new chairman said FBR had chalked out a plan to promote a tax culture in the country for which many steps have been initiated to boost the number of taxpayers.
Nisar Khan assured the business community that all the major issues are going to be resolved with due consultation of business community and it would be taken on board like under invoicing and sales tax problems.
The FBR chairman said meeting the business community helped the Board to get first-hand knowledge and reaction of stakeholders which will help them improve performance and ensure a level playing field. “We always need support of FPCCI to expand the tax base,” the chief of the tax agency said.
Nisar Khan said FBR is not supposed to collect taxes only but to take care of the economic direction the country takes and play its role in development of society.
Earlier, UBG Chairman Iftikhar Malik said the country is passing through difficult times due to mismanagement, bad governance, deteriorating law and order situation and the energy crunch which had increased crime rate, unemployment and decreased revenues. However, he said, FPCCI will support all positive steps of the FBR to put the economy back on tract.
He greeted new chairman, who has also been elevated to the post of Secretary Revenue Division and participated in parleys with the IMF team over the past few years. He hoped that the new FBR chairman and his team would further consolidate achievements and build on the gains to achieve collection targets for 2015-16.
He said that the government would have to find out an amicable solution to the withholding tax on bank transactions to ensure a business friendly atmosphere in the country. He said that though expansion of tax net is need of the hour but the government would have to find out new ways to bring the untaxed sectors into the tax net.
“Our main issues are export refunds worth more than Rs140 billion pending against the FBR, gas surcharges and tariff rates. You cannot expect from the industry without giving them required incentives to compete in international markets”, said FPCCI leader.
FPCCI team said the SRO culture should be discouraged as it served no purpose. Consultation with business community before issuance of SROs and other directives should be made mandatory to boost confidence, he demanded.
Criticizing the sales tax regime, S.M Muneer said it is not progressive but regressive which is not helping in any way.
Participants of the meeting also discussed issues of Steel Melting Industry, tax refunds, under-invoicing miss-declaration, revenue targets, mismanagement, increasing share of parallel economy in the national GDP, and the overall tax environment.