ISLAMABAD  - Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Sunday urged the government to introduce a fixed tax regime for traders in the upcoming budget and end the condition of CNIC for them on sale that would help in promoting documented economy and increasing the tax revenue of the country.
In a press statement President ICCI Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan said that the retail sector was making around 20 per cent contribution to GDP and introducing a fixed tax regime for it would be a great initiative to broaden the tax base of the country besides making significant improvement in tax-to-GDP ratio. He said that the best option for the government to increase tax revenue is to avoid putting more tax burden on existing taxpayers and focus on broadening the tax base with low tax rates.
Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan said that high tax rates in Pakistan were a major hurdle in promoting tax culture and bringing more people into the tax net as high tax rates always encouraged tax evasion. Therefore, he urged the government to focus on rationalization of taxes to make them affordable for taxpayers that would be helpful in promoting tax compliance across the country. He said that tax on rental income was up to 37 per cent in Pakistan due to which the business community was also facing great problems as they have to pay high rents of shops and this factor was giving rise to inflation as well. He urged the government that in the coming budget make a significant cut in tax on rental income in order to reduce cost of doing business and attract more local and foreign investment in the country.
Fatima Azim, Senior Vice President and Abdul Rehman Khan Vice President ICCI said that 17 per cent GST in Pakistan was a major cause of high production cost and high inflation.
They observed that the GST was 5per cent in Canada, Taiwan & UAE, 7per cent in Singapore, 8per cent in Sri Lanka, 9per cent in Iran and 10per cent in Vietnam, which showed that the people and businesses in Pakistan were paying a very high GST. They urged that the government to bring down GST to single digit level in the coming budget that would be instrumental in reducing production cost and providing a great relief to the high inflation-stricken general public.