Lahore - The Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW) on Sunday asked the government to stop extending deadlines for the tax amnesty scheme as it has failed to achieve the desired results due to opposition by trades.
It asked the government to take strict action against non-filers who are not ready to discharge national obligation by paying their share. Falling exports and remittances are not sufficient to run the country therefore tax culture must be introduced otherwise government will have no option but to get loans to run the affairs, said Dr. Murtaza Mughal, President PEW.
He said that exports continue to fall; like all other sectors the services sector has also shown dismal performance through exports reduced by 5.96 percent in the first seven months of the current fiscal. He said that fall in services exports is due to double taxation, incompetent and uneducated export managers and lack of coordination between federal and provincial revenue authorities.
Dr. Murtaza Mughal said that like exports, the remittances sector in plagued with incompetent officials who continue to damage country. He said that government spend hefty amount on advertising about tax amnesty scheme but it failed to lure 3000 non-filers which is disappointing.
The failure of such schemes can be attributed to lack of trust between taxpayers and authorities, corruption in FBR, glitches in software and unholy intention to enjoy free ride with has increased poverty.