QUETTA, Sept 8: CBR chairman Abdullah Yousaf has sought help from business community for achieving revenue target and expanding the tax base, and urged businessmen to pay their taxes honestly.

Addressing the members of the Balochistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI), at Quetta Club on Thursday, he said that the government was not in a position to further cut the tax rates.

He deplored that out of the country’s total population of 140 million only 1.2 million people were paying taxes which also included 0.5 million government employees.

Referring to the business community, the Central Board of Revenue chief said that only 42,000 traders and businessmen filed their tax returns during the last fiscal year, while over 2.5 million traders were running different businesses in the country.

“This trend should be changed and the business community should play its due role in broadening the tax base and then only the government can consider reducing tax rates,” Mr Abdullah said.

He said that the government had already taken various steps to give relief to different sectors of the economy and had also exempted five major export sectors - textile, leather, carpet, sports and surgical equipment – from payment of sales tax.

Replying to a question, he said that some duties and taxes were re-imposed because people were misusing these concessions. He said that the construction sector had been given duty relief of up to 5 per cent on the import of second-hand dumpers and mixers but the importers started misusing of this facility.

They imported second-hand dumpers and mixers and used them as truck detaching dumpers and mixers, which forced the government to again impose 60 per cent duty to protect the local industry, he explained.