Pb Govt Assures Ending Around 50 Unnecessary Tax Filing

Punjab government on Monday assured the business community ending almost 50 unnecessary tax filing, besides unifying the labor related taxes and merging the professional and property taxes

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 22nd Jul, 2019 ) :Punjab government on Monday assured the business community ending almost 50 unnecessary tax filing, besides unifying the labor related taxes and merging the professional and property taxes.

The assurance was given by the Punjab Finance Minister Makhdoom Jawan Bakhat Hashim in a meeting with the president of Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) Almas Haider at civil secretariat here.

The meeting was attended by the provincial ministers Mian Aslam Iqbal, Hafiz Mumtaz Ahmed, Malik Muhammad Anwar, Secretary Finance Abdullah Sunbal, Chairman Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA) Javed Ahmed, Secretary Industries and representatives of Lahore Tax Bar.

The objective of the meeting was to resolve the business community complaints about tax collection and harmonization of the taxes in the province.

The LCCI president mentioned that the business community compelled to pay taxes 47 times in a year which increase burden on the companies. The big companies manage their tax returns filling through their agents and lawyers while the small businesses have to shut down their businesses to fulfill the department requirements, he observed.

He suggested unifying the different taxes to reduce tax returns filing besides increase the tax collection.

The LCCI president suggested abolishing the infrastructure cess for development of dryports in the province and separating the tax collection from the service delivery.

He also asked ending unnecessary monitoring of the business and increases the trust in the business community.

Makhdoom Jawan Bakhat Hashim acknowledge 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 said and added that solving the business community problems was the topmost priority of the government.

The minister instructed the Chairman PRA to evaluate the revenue impact of abolishing the infrastructure cess from the dry ports in Punjab while the LCCI should prepare and present a plan for the revival of the dry ports in the next meeting so that the government would be able to make a final decision on the issue.

The minister also issued instructions to the industry department to prepare alternate plans for the revival of the dry ports.

The meeting also discussed the issue of the revival of the real estate.

Mian Aslam Iqbal mentioned that property tax was an important component of the revenue collection but the government ignored it and real estate sector was at the verge of collapse. He stressed the need of effective planning for the revival of the real estate sector.