KARACHI: The Pakistan Business Council (PBC) has demanded that the payment of inter-corporate dividends be treated as a non-taxable event.

A press release said on Tuesday a PBC delegation met Special Assistance to the Prime Minister Tariq Pasha, Minister of State for Revenue Ashfaq Tola and others to discuss the budget proposals for 2023-24.

Other demands put forward by the PBC included restoring group-loss relief to promote consolidation, scale and competitiveness, creating parity in taxation of gains on the disposal for shares in non-listed and private companies with gains on the sale of real estate, offsetting any tax due with assessed refunds, extending the period available for the offsetting of minimum tax against future profits for a period of five years, reducing the incidence of withholding taxes and advance taxes on the formal sector while increasing the same on non-filers dealing in property and on their utility bills.

The PBC delegation was pointed out that there was a potential of raising tax revenue from wholesale, retail and real estate of Rs747 billion, stemming losses of Rs488bn in revenue from under-invoicing of imports from just four countries, raising property taxes of Rs400bn and agriculture taxes of Rs375bn.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2023