LAHORE, Oct 9: Punjab Finance Minister Sardar Hasnain Bahadar Dareshak has said the cost and management accountants (CMAs) were playing a vital role in the survival of the industrial and commercial organizations by promoting economy, efficiency and effectiveness.

He said at a workshop on 'Income tax laws and procedures' organized by the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Pakistan (ICMAP) here on Saturday that accountants were making a vital contribution towards making the industrial and commercial organizations competitive by minimizing the costs of services and products.

Referring to the tax culture, he said it was unfortunate that the tax collection of the country always fell short of the targets necessitating procurement of loans from international financial institutions for meeting the revenue shortfall. The heavy pressure of debt servicing brought the country to the verge of bankruptcy seriously eroding its financial and economic sovereignty and compelling the government to accept conditions of the donors in the past.

Mr Dareshak said the wise economic management by the government had rescued the country from the brink of economic bankruptcy and brought forth the need for making it as much self-reliant as possible. He had realized the necessity of reducing financial dependence of the provinces on the federation after attending a series of meetings for finalizing the NFC Award.

He said institutes like ICMAP could help the government by promoting the tax culture through professionalism and CMAs could play a useful role in conduct of audit and provision of professional services.

Earlier, FCMA Lahore branch chairman S. M. Jamil said the CMAs were trained in providing audit and management consultancy services. The CBR used to outsource sales tax and audit in the past by giving assignments to the CMAs but the practice had been discontinued depriving them of an opportunity to serve the country, he added.

Khwaja Adnan Zaheer, Shabbar Zaidi, Ali Imran Siddiqi and Rashid Rahman discussed the technical aspects of tax laws and procedures.