‘Tax target can be achieved by incising economic activities’

Islamabad: The government will not be able to increase revenue substantially amid current policies of suppressing demand, a business leader said Wednesday.

The current interest rates and other policies have choked demand which has pushed the industrial sector to cut production which has also reduced their tax contribution, said Shahid Rasheed Butt former president of ICCI. He said that tax could only be increased when economic activities are promoted which is not the case.

The reduced demand has also brought down imports, which have scaled-down the customs duty by 5.7 per cent in the first two months of the current fiscal, he informed. Shahid Rasheed Butt said that last year Rs3,832 billion were collected by FBR while the target for the current fiscal is Rs5,550 billion which is difficult to achieve under the current set of circumstances.

He said that target for the first two months was intentionally kept low but it was missed by Rs64 billion while all the efforts to squeeze existing taxpayers will not boost collection over Rs4,400 billion.

The targets of FBR are not achievable and only a miracle can help the institutions come up to the expectations of those who have set unrealistic targets. The business leader said that the government has not controlled expenses which may result in missed deficit target of 0.6 per cent which will hit the country’s image among international institutions.