ICCI urges FBR to defer tax collection from businesses during Covid-19

March 31, 2021: President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan on Wednesday lauded the decision of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for extending the deadline to furnish the taxpayer profile up to June 30.

It would reduce pressures on taxpayers by giving them more time for the preparation of their profiles, he said in a statement.

However, he urged that FBR to simplify the taxpayer profile as it required extensive information including mandatory submission of bank account detail, business premises detail, and utility connections detail that would be a very cumbersome exercise for the taxpayers and would consume a lot of their time in its completion. 

Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan said that the business community has been demanding of the FBR since long for developing a simplified and easy taxation system to enhance tax compliance as the current complicated tax system was a major hurdle for many potential taxpayers to come into the tax net.

However, instead of focusing on simplifying the tax regime, FBR has developed a tax profiling system, which has made the tax payment obligation more difficult for taxpayers, he observed.

He said that many members of the business community were already finding it very difficult to complete the filing of online income tax returns and were demanding the development of a one-pager tax return form in Urdu to facilitate them.

He said that instead of making things easy for taxpayers, FBR has come up with the requirement of a taxpayer profile that would make their job more difficult to complete. He urged the FBR to revise its decision and focus on a simple and short version of the taxpayer profile for promoting ease of doing business.

ICCI President said that due to the 3rd wave of Covid-19, the government has banned the operation of many businesses including wedding halls, marquees, indoor dining in restaurants, besides reducing business days for retail and timings that have caused great losses for the business community.

Therefore, he urged that FBR defer the collection of taxes from the business class during the 3rd wave of coronavirus or allow them to pay income and other taxes of the current financial year in easy installments that would provide them some relief in these turbulent business conditions.

Fatma Azim Senior Vice President and Abdul Rehman Khan Vice President ICCI said that the GST rate was quite high in Pakistan and was an important source of the high cost of doing business and high inflation.

Therefore, they emphasized bringing down the GST rate to a single-digit level in the upcoming budget that would reduce production cost and inflation and facilitate the growth of business and industrial activities.

APP