PESHAWAR: Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry has expressed serious concern over the hurdles created due to lockdown to control Covid-19 pandemic and demanded of Federal Board of Revenue to pay the refunds so that business community could revive trade activities in the provincial metropolis.

SCCI president Eng Maqsood Anwar Pervaiz while chairing a meeting here on Tuesday welcomed the appointment of Mohammad Javed Ghani as new chairperson of Federal Board of Revenue and hoped that he would play active role in the early payment of refunds.

According to a statement issued here, the SCCI chief said that inordinate delay in clearance of refunds by FBR and frequent lockdowns created serious unrest among the business community of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

He recalled that Prime Minister Imran Khan had assured business community of early release of the refunds but despite that the undue delay in payment of refunds was incomprehensible.

He said that the delay in the process would further push the business community into economic depression. He added that any further delay would be unacceptable.

Referring to officials of regional tax office, the SCCI chief said that details of refunds claims belonging to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa business community had timely been forwarded to FBR but the relevant authorities were using delaying tactics to accept the demands.

He said that the undue delay in payment of refunds had multiplied economic problems of the business community. He demanded of the government and FBR chief to bring new people under the tax net instead of further overburdening the existing taxpayers.

The SCCI chief also called upon the government to provide relief to the businesses and industries in order to pull them out from the current economic crisis created due to lockdown.

He stressed the need for adopting ‘business-friendly’ policies while keeping in view the present scenario.

Published in Dawn, July 8th, 2020