KCCI laments tax collection policy

KARACHI: Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) President Junaid Esmail Makda has expressed scepticism at the revenue collection efforts of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) in the city, which already contributes more than 70 percent to the national exchequer.

Appreciating the intentions of Prime Minister Imran Khan, Makda said the FBR was responsible to implement the policies to enhance revenue all over the country, but it was confined only to Karachi instead.

“FBR wants to achieve the revenue target by further squeezing the existing taxpayers of Karachi,” he said. “We are not against the actions being taken to strictly deal with tax evaders from Karachi who must also be brought into the tax net along with tax evaders from other areas of the country, but loyal taxpayers should not be harassed and overburdened with exorbitant taxes.”

The solution was to broaden the tax net, which would subsequently bring down the tax rates encouraging business and industrial community to go for expansion, in turn maximising production, sales, revenue collection, employment, poverty alleviation, and long-term economic prosperity, he added.

KCCI president requested the PM to issue directives for broadening the tax base and implementing the relevant policies all over the country in letter and spirit, which would certainly yield positive results.

He reaffirmed that exorbitant tax rates along with cumbersome procedures and frequent issuance of anti-business and anti-taxpayers SROs/notifications would result in closure of massive number of industrial units, significantly dent government’s revenue and render hundreds of thousands jobless.