FBR asked to plug loopholes to make Pakistan a developed country

Lahore: A business leader asked Chairman FBR on Thursday to plug loopholes causing tax evasion and other irregularities which is barring Pakistan from become a developed and self-sufficient country.

The Apex tax body should employ latest IT infrastructure and improve capacity of staff to enhance collections, without hurting existing taxpayers, so that dependency on grants could end, said President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum and former minister for Information Technology (Sindh) Mian Zahid Hussain.

Talking to Chairman FBR Tariq Bajwa in Karachi, he said that misuse of authority can be stopped by revisiting certain laws, rules, and regulation to document economy and increase tax base to boost the volume of revenue in the economy.

Internationally agreed practices should be adopted so that no one get impression of repressive tax regime, he demanded.

Mian Zahid Hussain drew attention of Chairman FBR to the sad state of affairs in the FPCCI saying that members of the opposition are not invited to the important meetings in the Apex Chamber.

The genuine problems of those who didn’t vote for the sitting panel are also ignored and a large number of businessmen belonging to opponent group have no say at all, he added.

At the occasion, Chairman FBR Tariq Bajwa said that serious efforts are underway to bring FBR at par with the tax authorities of the developed countries without which country cannot climb ladder of success.

He said that he is available to resolve the issues of the business community irrespective of their affiliations and that he should be directly contacted in this regard.

He invited Mian Zahid Hussain to come to Islamabad with a delegation for detailed meeting to hammer out issues of the business community and also sought concrete budget proposals.