Income tax, GST will have to be paid: Tarin

ISLAMABAD: Adviser on Finance Shaukat Tarin said on Monday that income tax and GST would have to be paid while the remaining other taxes would be removed.

“We will finalise work on a system to stop harassment and FBR is the main cause of delaying it,” he said this while addressing the Kamyab Jawan Convention in here. It was jointly organised by the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) and Kamyab Jawan Program at the ICCI Auditorium.

“The traders all over the country had visited me. I told them that we all have to pay taxes because if you don’t pay tax, you have no right to vote. Income tax and GST will have to be paid while the other remaining taxes will be removed by the government,” he remarked. “We will not coerce anyone but we will implore that tax should be paid,” he said and added artificial intelligence would be used to assess incomes.

Tarin said raising the tax-to-Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio to 20 percent alone could improve the country's growth rate and provide employment opportunities to youth. The current tax-to-GDP tax rate in Pakistan was nine percent which was needed to be doubled at least up to 20 percent. "There is no way out without paying taxes because we all use the resources of this country, so taxes are obligatory on all sections of the society, including traders," he said. The adviser said no one had the right to benefit from national resources without paying taxes. He assured the government would resolve difficulties of traders on tax matters and no harassment of taxpayers would be allowed.

He said Kamyab Jawan Programme had been started with the same purpose to exploit the potential of the youth. So far over 800,000 applications had been received under the programme, he added. The adviser said that interest-free agriculture and business loans are being provided under another initiative of Kamyab Pakistan Programme which was aimed to uplift about four million marginalised families. Shaukat Tarin said the young population was 60 percent of the country without which the country could not move forward. The adviser distributed cheques of business loans and certificates of skills training among the youngsters at the occasion.

Shaukat Tarin that said the government wanted to bring back Pakistan's past economic glory when Pakistan was among one of the four largest economies in Asian region. In 1960s, he said, "We were counted with economies like China and Japan, when we were economically strong."

He said the Kamyab Kisan Programme would also be launched soon as the government was focusing on promotion of agriculture and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). He said these programmes would help revive the lost economic glory of Pakistan. The adviser said the government was focusing on human resource capital and Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs), which would be a top priority. Tarin said the government was working hard on human resource capital and interest-free loans, adding, skills development courses for young people, agricultural loans, home loans in easy installments and health cards were the major steps taken to achieve the target. “If people have no money in SME and IT sector, we will provide finances to them,” he observed.

According to the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan, we are taking important policy steps for the progress of youth, he said. The adviser said many resource deficient countries like Japan had achieved phenomenal economic growth by focusing on human resource development, adding, the prime minister’s vision was to promote youth to drive Pakistan on a sustainable growth trajectory. Shaukat Tarin said the government’s flagship project Kamyab Jawan Programme (KJP) would bring grassroots revolution in Pakistan and pave the way for making Pakistan a welfare state. He said KJP was a complete package to promote youth in entrepreneurship, skill development and other fields. To a question if gas subsidy is being withdrawn, he said they should contact energy minister in this regard. He left the journalists without giving reply to the issue of sugar.

On the occasion Special Assistant to Prime Minister for Youth Affairs Usman Dar highlighted the key features of Kamyab Jawan Programme, which provided business loans ranging from Rs100,000 to Rs25 million. He said an amount of Rs100 billion had been earmarked for providing business loans to youth, out of which, loans of Rs30 billion had been approved for 22,000 youngsters and the remaining amount would also be approved soon. He said KJP had created 50,000 jobs and the skills for all programmes had a 60-70 percent employability ratio, which showed its success. He thanked ICCI, NAVTTC and other institutions including banks for their cooperation in KJP.

In his welcome address, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) Muhammad Shakeel Munir, appreciated launching of KJP to promote youth and assured that ICCI would fully cooperate to make it successful. He said the youth is the precious asset of the country and focusing on youth entrepreneurship would drive Pakistan towards fast economic growth besides reducing the unemployment issue. He said the government should address the concerns of traders on tax matters including installation of POS, digital payments, bank accounts attachments and sharing of taxpayers’ data by Nadra with Federal Board of Revenue (FBR). He said the Adviser to PM on Finance should visit major chambers of commerce starting from ICCI for consultation on budget proposals before finalising the next budget.