KARACHI, April 10: The Chairman Committee on Taxation, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP) Saqib Masood, gave a presentation on the tax proposals submitted by the institute to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and the government for consideration for the Federal Budget 2012-13.
The occasion was the visit of FBR Chairman Mumtaz Haider Rizvi along with a delegation that included Member Inland Revenue Shahid H. Asad, all Chief Commissioners from large taxpayers UNIT, and Regional Tax Office, at the ICAP, Karachi.
Masood said that the focus should be on broadening the tax base, instead of increasing the tax rate.
Amnesty schemes and fixed tax regime should be abolished, as these have proved to be counter-productive, he said.
He suggested that relevant laws should be amended to enable FBR to relate CNIC numbers when people buy and sell property and vehicle, make air travel, pay utility bills, schools fee and club subscriptions. These CNIC number may then be matched with NTN numbers by the department. Appropriate check and balances should be introduced for foreign remittances, so that these may not be used to whiten money.
Masood emphasised the need to reduce the corporate tax rate to inculcate corporatisation culture in the country. He also suggested that export of goods and services should be equated.
A press release by ICAP stated that unanimity of views were found between FBR and ICAP over broadening of tax base, documentation drive undertaken by FBR via SRO 191, reduction of duties and taxes on manufacturing and industrial sectors, and addressing anomalies in direct and indirect tax laws.
The suggestion of removal of duplication of SROs 821 and 191 for better compliance was well received by the Chairman FBR.ICAP also suggested that undesired immunity granted to certain sectors in SRO 821 may also be withdrawn and the law should be made applicable across the board, without any exception, to provide level playing field to all sectors of the economy.
The Chairman FBR apprised the participants of the various measures taken by the tax department to reduce taxpayers’ difficulties and to ease tax compliances.