What's new

Govt to introduce fixed tax regime for small traders: minister

Shahzaz ud din

SENIOR MEMBER
Joined
Jun 12, 2017
Messages
7,877
Reaction score
14
Country
Pakistan
Location
Canada
Govt to introduce fixed tax regime for small traders: minister
By
APP
-
August 1, 2019
0
927
46-696x342.jpg

  • ‘CNIC condition will be mandatory for business-to-business transactions and the govt will not reverse this decision at any cost’
ISLAMABAD: There was a misperception among traders about the CNIC condition and the government would soon introduce a fixed tax regime for small traders after which they would not be bound to record CNICs on sale of Rs50,000 and above, said Economic Affairs Minister Hammad Azhar, while addressing a Post-Budget Conference at Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Thursday.

“However, CNIC condition would be mandatory for business-to-business transactions and the government would not reverse this decision at any cost,” he added

Hammad Azhar noted that the contribution of the retail sector in the country’s GDP was 20pc, but its contribution to tax was just 0.25pc.

He said 80-90pc retailers were not registered in the tax net, adding that the government was determined to bringing this sector into the tax system.

“The government has to make a 35pc increase in the tax revenue during FY2019-20,” he said and urged the business community to cooperate in this regard.

He blamed the wrong policies of the previous government that had led the country to deindustrialization, saying that the incumbent government would further strengthen the industry through the introduction of meaningful reforms.

“For this purpose, duty on import of industrial machinery would be reduced in the next budget,” he maintained.

The minister said 40pc tax revenue was collected at import stage and the government wanted to rationalise it. He said key policy rate was enhanced to control the level of inflation, adding that with the reduction in inflation, key interest rate would also be reduced.

Commenting on high electricity rates, he said that 40pc electricity was being produced through imported fuel and the government was working to generate energy through hydro and other indigenous sources that would bring down energy cost.

He said FBR was being automated so as to minimize the interface between taxpayers and tax collectors.

He recalled that the previous government had increased the circular debt to Rs453 billion in one year while the current government would reduce circular debt to zero in two years.

The minister assured that he would again visit ICCI along with the FBR chairman to address the tax issues of the business community.

Speaking on the occasion, ICCI President Ahmed Hassan Moughal said that tax rates were high in Pakistan due to which people were avoiding tax payment.

He urged that government to reduce tax rates and focus more on broadening tax base, a doing that would improve tax revenue.

He also emphasized the need to remove the reservations of traders on the CNIC condition.

Moughal urged the government to reduce the rate of sales tax to a single digit level in order to bring down the cost of doing business and inflation.

He said that the government should reduce duties on import of industrial machinery to boost industrialisation, employment, exports and tax revenue.

ICCI Senior Vice President Rafat Farid and office-bearers Zubair Ahmed Malik, Mian Akram Farid, Khalid Javed, Tariq Sadiq, Ch Waheedud Din also spoke on the occasion.
 
.
Fixed tax regime to rid small traders of CNIC headache
By
APP
-
August 2, 2019
0
326
5d3692e3c6a69-696x418.jpg

Owing to a misperception among traders about the CNIC condition on sale of Rs50,000, the government announced on Thursday it would soon introduce a fixed tax regime for small traders after which they would not be bound to record CNICs on such sales.

However, the CNIC requirement would be mandatory for B2B transactions and government would not reverse this decision at any cost.

This was announced by Minister for Economic Affairs Muhammad Hammad Azhar while addressing a post-budget conference at Islamabad’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Azhar said that the contribution of the retail sector in GDP was 20 per cent, but its contribution to tax was just 0.25pc.

He said that 80-90pc retailers were not registered in the tax net and added that the government was determined to bring this sector into the tax system.

The minister said that the government aims to make a 35pc increase in tax revenue during FY 2019-20 and urged the business community to cooperate with the government in this regard.

He said that due to the faulty policies of the previous government, the country experienced deindustrialisation and vowed that the current government would further strengthen the industry.

“For this purpose, duty on import of industrial machinery would be reduced in the next budget,” he said.

Azhar said that a 40pc tax revenue was collected at the import stage and the government wanted to rationalise it.

He said the key policy rate was enhanced to control inflation and added that with the reduction in inflation, key interest rate would also be reduced.

Commenting on high power tariffs, he said that 40pc electricity was being produced through imported fuel and that the government was working to generate energy through hydro and other indigenous sources that would bring down the costs to produce energy.

He also drew the audience’s attention to the fact that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) was being automated and would better facilitate taxpayers and tax collectors.

He recounted that the previous government increased circular debt to Rs453 billion in one year while the current government aims to reduce circular debt to zero per cent in 2 years.

He assured the attendees that he would again visit ICCI along with the FBR chairman to address the tax issues of the business community.

Also speaking on the occasion, ICCI President Ahmed Hassan Moughal said that tax rates were high in Pakistan due to which people were avoiding paying taxes.

He urged the government to reduce tax rates and focus on broadening the tax base which would lead to an improvement in tax revenue.

He proposed reducing sales tax rate to a single digit level so that the cost of doing business can be brought down as well as inflation.

The ICCI president further said that the government should reduce duties on import of industrial machinery to boost industrialisation, employment, exports and tax revenue.
 
.
Good. Tax on small business/shops should be based on

1. Size of business place/shop in sq-feet.
2. Total annual sales of that business
3. Tier of the city/town. Less for low tier cities and more for tier 1-2 cities.
 
. . . . .
Traders reject draft of fixed tax regime
By
Staff Report
-
August 3, 2019
0
188
9-696x418.jpg

  • APAT official terms FBR’s fixed tax scheme ‘a joke’, says department cannot impose taxes on the basis of an outlet’s ‘area’
LAHORE: The All Pakistan Anjuman-e-Tajiran (APAT) has rejected the proposed draft of the fixed tax scheme, saying that the scheme is “full of contradictions” and “against the aspirations” of small traders.

Addressing a press conference at the Lahore Press Club on Saturday, APAT Central General Secretary Naeem Mir expressed serious concern over the newly-released draft of the fixed tax regime, urging the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to finalise the scheme after due consultations with small traders.

“Involvement of small traders will ensure that the regime is acceptable to all sections of traders. It will also help improve the tax revenue of the country,” he maintained.

Tearing the draft into pieces, Mir stated that the traders would not accept the “lollypop” of fixed tax regime.

He termed the scheme as “a joke” played with over 3.1 million traders of the country, saying that the tax department cannot impose taxes on the basis of the area of an outlet.

The APAT official regretted that jewellers, real estate agents and chartered accountants were not yet included in the tax net, whereas small traders, who were already paying taxes through power bills, were included in the fixed tax regime.

He suggested the government to adopt a comprehensive strategy for broadening the tax net, as the traders were facing multiple challenges in the wake of a new tax regime, amendments made for documentation of the economy, especially the imposition of sales tax at the import stage, retail prices and CNIC condition.

“Traders believe that every citizen must play his/her role in improving the economic condition of the country. We are not against taxation but harassment of traders in the name of tax collection must be stopped. Traders are protesting while FBR is making fun of them,” he added.

Mir believed that the government was not serious in resolving the issues of traders and was also trying to confuse them on the ID card issue. He urged the FBR to take the traders’ community on board before finalising such schemes.

He further suggested that the FBR should make categories of traders and impose a fixed tax on them according to their taxpaying ability.

“Fixed tax regime must be drafted in a way that it could minimise interaction between taxpayers and tax collectors and eliminate the chances of corruption,” he added.

Earlier on Friday, Traders Union Pakistan President Kashif Chaudhry had also termed the draft “a conspiracy to divide the traders”.
 
.
Back
Top Bottom