Businessmen urge to ‘honour taxpayers’

LAHORE: Progressive Group, a representative platform of traders and industrialists, on Monday launched a massive campaign to convince the government to devise a simple and easy taxation system to enhance the tax net.
Progressive Group president Khalid Usman in a letter to the Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and other political leaders said, “Pakistan’s tax system is very complicated and unfriendly towards the businessmen.”
He said numerous tax amnesty schemes were introduced during the last 70 years, but only 1.2 percent of 200 million people opted to join the tax net. He said his group was launching a campaign ‘Lets honour the taxpayer’ to enhance tax net.
He said tax receiving authorities did not respect the taxpayer, and claimed that if they were treated with dignity and honour they would not only be ready to join the tax net, but would rather ask others to do the same. He said this one step would help promote tax culture in the country.
Usman in his letter further stressed that the business community should be taken on board for consultation while drafting a tax policy and bureaucracy should be friendly towards taxpayers and “also offer preferential treatment in every department.”