ISLAMABAD (APP) - Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Dr Babar Awan said that Federal Board of Revenue(FBR) should not issue any further audit notice to business community and audit cases of those issued income and sales tax notices, should be settled on priority. This was observed by Dr Babar Awan while addressing a delegation of Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry who called on him led by Vice President ICCI, Muhammad Ishtiaq Qureshi. From FBR side, Director General Regional Tax Office, Aziz Ahmed Bilour, Commissioner Income Tax, Aftab Ahmed and Additional Collector, Hameed Memon participated in the meeting. Dr Babar Awan said business community is playing a useful role in strengthening the national economy by promoting business activities and FBR should not take any step which creates problems for them. He said instead of burdening the current taxpayers, FBR should look for expanding the tax base by bringing those areas into tax net which are enjoying exemption so far. Speaking on the occasion, Vice President, ICCI, Muhammad Ishtiaq Qureshi, said, businessmen are regular taxpayers and they dont evade tax. However, despite filing their tax returns, they have been issued income tax and sales tax audit notices which created concern among them. He said due to current economic recession, businessmen were already in trouble while law and order situation, power shortage, high utility tariffs and high cost of credit were adding making conditions tough for them. He said these were not the ideal times for FBR to issue audit notices, instead government should have come out with positive measures for trade and industry. Vice President, ICCI, lauded the efforts of Dr Babar Awan for taking measures to resolve their problems. Director General Regional Tax Office, Aziz Ahmed Bilour, Commissioner Income Tax, Aftab Ahmed and Additional Collector FBR, Hameed Memon assured Dr Babar Awan and ICCI delegation that no more audit notice will be issued while efforts would be stepped up to settle audit cases of those who have received income tax and sales tax audit notices. ICCI delegation thanked FBR team for this positive response and hoped that this step would remove audit concerns of businessmen. They said business community should focus their attention on promotion of business activities. They also thanked Dr Babar Awan for taking interest in business community issues for their resolution.