THE imposition of a withholding tax has not been well thought-out or given deep consideration on the nature and capacity of account holders. It is a case of charging 0.3% tax without ascertaining whether the account holder has the requisite income to file the tax return.

One such example of levying this unjust tax happened to me. I transferred Rs 4 million to my brother’s account to buy a property on my behalf, and which he paid to the seller.

The bank deducted 0.3pc withholding tax. My brother kept telling the bank officials that this money was not his and he does not even qualify to file a tax return but they said the rules did not distinguish between filers and non-filers as this was now the law.

I request the finance minister to revoke this tax and find other means to bring tax evaders into the tax net.

Rehan Sajjad

Daharki

(2)

APROPOS the letter ‘No-filer blues’ (Sept 1). I agree that people are suffering owing to the 0.6pc withholding tax on non-filers of returns, but what about those who own big shops and stores but refuse to file returns?

What if there is a robbery in such a shop? Why should the owner be entitled to call the police for assistance?

In such cases, the state should refuse to help at all, and the public should not buy goods from such places.

The FBR should advertise the names of such traders, and besides arresting those involved in corruption, non-filing traders should also be tried in anti-terrorism courts, because their resistance to taxes adversely affects the state’s revenue and thus causes poverty which in turn leads to terrorism.

Shakir Lakhani

Karachi

Published in Dawn, September 7th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play