May 14, 2006	Sunday	Rabi-us-Sani 15, 1427

ISLAMABAD, May 13: The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) has proposed a set of amendments in tax laws relating to income tax, sales tax and customs duty for consideration in the next budget.

According to the proposals released here on Saturday, the association suggested that the tax rate for salaried persons was quite high and needed to be rationalised keeping in view the fact that they were not allowed any deduction from their income, especially where income exceeds Rs600,000 and all perquisites are also taxed.

The ACCA called for scaling down income tax rate to 25-30 per cent for the salaried class, and 30 per cent for the corporate, extend the scope of small companies to all companies registered during previous years and rationalisation of withholding tax rates on various transactions.

It pointed out that the government of India has levied two per cent education cess on tax payable by domestic companies. At least, the government should provide tax credit on expenses incurred on education of children by a taxpayer.

It was proposed that the national tax number (NTN) should be made compulsory for a candidate of a provincial assemble, the national assembly and the senate and they should get clearance from the income tax department about their tax liabilities.

The association further proposed that the exemption available to foreign currency accounts and similar other schemes should not be available to the government employees, public representatives, and holders of public office.

It proposed that the current rate of sales tax at 15 per cent was high and needed to be reduced to 5 per cent over the next 10 years.

Pakistan has still demand of about 0.5 million houses. The only way to reduce cost of cement was duty free import of cement. It would reduce cement prices in the country as well as boost the housing sector and the 52 related industries.