LAHORE - Punjab government on Monday assured the business community of ending about 50 unnecessary filing of taxes besides merging collection of property, professional and labor related taxes.
Punjab Finance Minister Makhdoom Hashim Jawan Bakhat gave the assurance in a meeting with Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) President Almas Haider here at Punjab Finance Department on Monday. Minister for Industry and Trade Mian Aslam Iqbal, Minister for Excise and Taxation Hafiz Mumtaz Ahmed, Minister for Board of Revenue Malik Muhammad Anwar, Secretary Finance Abdullah Sunbal, Chairman Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA) Javeed Ahmed, Secretary Industries, and representatives of Lahore Tax Bar also attended the meeting. The objective of the meeting was to resolve the business community complaints about tax collection and harmonization of taxes in the province.
LCCI president mentioned that the business community was forced to pay taxes 47 times in a year which increase burden on the companies. The big companies manage their tax returns filling through agents and lawyers while the small businesses were real sufferers. he observed. He suggested unifying different taxes to reduce tax returns filing. He suggested abolishing infrastructure cess for development of dry ports and separating the tax collection from the service delivery. He also asked ending unnecessary monitoring of the business.
Hashim Jawan Bakhat acknowledged the suggestion of the business community and assured ending around 50 unnecessary tax filling, unifying the labor related taxes, and merging the professional and property taxes. He said the government was doing legislation to end unwanted regulations for the promotion of the trade and investment. Besides, the government has been revisiting the rules and regulations for ease of doing business, introducing business friendly policies. He instructed Chairman PRA to evaluate the revenue impact of abolishing the infrastructure cess from the dry ports while the LCCI should prepare and present a plan for the revival of dry ports in the next meeting. He also issued instructions to the industry department to prepare alternate plans for the revival of the dry ports.