LAHORE - Federal Board of Revenue has finally notified three central advisory committees and the establishment of 15 new regional committees, which will establish liaison between the traders at regional level to resolve issue of withholding tax on banking transactions by November 15, 2015.
The central advisory committees including Communication Committee, Income Tax Committee and Sales Tax Committee will continue to work with their representation from traders also, to improve the coordination between regional offices of FBR and business community, to remove the operational bottlenecks in the implementation of the recommendations and to facilitate and educate taxpayers.
The FBR Regional Trade Committees, consisting of representation from APAT-Naeem Mir Group, have been established in major cities of Pakistan, including Lahore, Gujranwala, Multan, Sukkur, Sargodha, Islamabad, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Bahawalpur, Sialkot, Abbotabad, Peshawar, Quetta, Karachi and Hyderabad. Each regional committee will be convened by the respective chief commissioner of the area.
Meanwhile, Khalid Pervaiz Group of APAT has announced to start their struggle after Muharram to force the government to withdraw WHT on banking transactions. This group was not part of the dialogues with the FBR.
But Naeem Mir said: “We, the traders, believe in dialogues and if govt accepts and implements our 18-point charter of demands, not only the traders of this generation but also coming generations will appreciate the efforts of APAT.”
Trade bodies those leaders who again and again disrupt dialogue process are not serious to resolve traders’ issues. “We are fighting for those traders who, as a responsible citizen, in national interest, wish to pay tax but remain out of tax net due to system failure. If our 18-point agenda is implemented over 95 percent issues of traders would be resolved.
It is to be noted that Finance Minister Ishaq Dar had announced to constitute another committee to review withholding tax on banking transactions after day long negotiations with traders. He said out of 18 demands submitted by the traders, government accepted their 16 demands. Dar said that the government would announce a special package for traders on November 15, 2015, as all the issues with traders have been settled amicably.
Dar said that reduction in the rate and threshold for collection of withholding tax on banking transactions on non-filers would be discussed after deliberation on 16 demands agreed between the two sides for consideration. Finance Minister further said that issue of reducing withholding tax on banking transactions would be addressed after the committee’s report was finalised.