Business Community Assured Of Ending Unnecessary Taxes

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 22nd Jul, 2019 ) :Provincial Finance Minister Makhdoom Hashim Jawan Bakht on Monday assured the business community of ending the almost 50 unnecessary taxes, besides joining the collection of property, professional and labour related taxes.

He gave this assurance in a meeting with Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) President Almas Haider here at Committee Room of Punjab Finance Department.

The meeting was also attended by Provincial 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, Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA) Chairman 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 taxes in the province.

Bakht added that government would end around 50 unnecessary tax filing, unify the labour related taxes and merge the professional and property taxes.

He said the government was making legislation to end unwanted regulations for the promotion of the trade and investment. Besides, the government had been revisiting the rules and regulations for ease of doing business, introducing business friendly policies. Solving the business community problems was the top most priority of the government, he asserted.

The minister instructed the PRA Chairman to evaluate the revenue impact of abolishing the infrastructure cess from the dry ports in Punjab, while the LCCI should present a plan for revival of 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 revival of the dry ports.

On this occasion, Malik Muhammad Anwar briefed the meeting that the BOR already unified the taxes while considering different proposals for the revival. He also briefed the meeting that all Excise and Taxation Department taxes were being unified but property and professional taxes could not easily be unified.

The finance minister instructed the Finance Department to ensure timelines given to different departments for harmonization of taxes.

Provincial Industry and Trade Minister 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 for effective planning for revival of real estate sector.

LCCI President mentioned that business community compelled to pay taxes 47 times in a year which increased burden on the companies. The big companies managed their tax returns filing through their agents and lawyers while the small businesses had to shut down their businesses to fulfill the departmental requirements, he observed.

He suggested unifying of different taxes to reduce the tax returns filing besides increase the tax collection. He also suggested abolishing the infrastructure cess for development of dryports in the province and separating the tax collection from the service delivery.

He also demanded of ending unnecessary monitoring of business to enhance the trust of business community.