ISLAMABAD (DNA) : The business community of the federal capital has strongly protested against the coercive measures of Federal Board of Revenue for installing devices at business premises to monitor sales and called upon the Finance Minister Muhammad Ishaq Dar to stop the department from such moves as it would create lot of harassment in business community and would create more distrust between the taxpayers and the tax authority.
In an urgent meeting at Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry, they expressed great concerns on FBR move to install computer chips at the sales counters, especially of restaurants and bakers to monitor sales and termed it a highly undesirable initiative as it would force the businessmen to strongly agitate against the government.
Addressing the meeting, Muzzamil Hussain Sabri, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry said that business community wanted to strengthen the economy by expanding tax net and stressed that government should avoid taking any coercive measures as they would retard the growth of business activities instead of bringing any benefits to the economy.
He said ICCI has always been calling for confidence building measures on the part of government to remove trust deficit between taxpayers and tax collectors. However, instead of taking positive initiatives, FBR was resorting to measures that would increase trust deficit between businessmen and the government.
Traders also showed reservations on SRO-608 which was issued without taking them into confidence and called for its withdrawal as the new criteria for sales tax collection under said SRO was creating troubles for them. They said unrealistic sales tax notices have added to their problems because they have confusions over the formula of imposing the tax.
ICCI President said that before taking any new step or issue new SRO, FBR should take business community and chambers of commerce into confidence as decisions taken with consensus prove beneficial while arbitrary decisions always lead to unproductive results for the economy. He stressed upon the government to take business leaders on board to discuss these important issues and till that time postpone the implementation of SRO 608 so that reservations of businessmen could be addressed.
