LAHORE:Carpet Training Institute (CTI) chairperson and former president of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry Pervez Hanif Sunday suggesting the creation of three separate independent departments for tax assessment, notices and collection, said that due to the monopoly of one department the corruption was prevailed everywhere.
He expressed these views while talking to a visiting delegation at his office. He said the federal government should improve the credibility of the Federal Board of Revenue before giving it the power to make arrests. “Despite issuing 70,000 to 80,000 notices to taxpayers annually, it does not benefit the national exchequer but rather expands the market for corruption,” he added.
Hanif said that it was the responsibility of the agencies to catch the tax evaders but the procedure being followed was not correct. He said institutions have records of every person through NADRA and banks. “If a person does not pay taxes or hides something, an email should be sent to him or dispatch proof to his home address but there is no way the FBR can be given NAB-style powers and arrest anyone it wants and this will only deepen the atmosphere of fear and panic and will not lead to any positive results,” he added.
He said that the credibility of FBR is in front of everyone so it needs to be improved first so that people have confidence in this institution, adding he said if this institution had been trusted, the number of taxpayers would not have remained the same for years.
Hanif said in countries where tax rates are lower, total tax revenue is higher, so the government should reduce tax rates and the tax machinery should be used to find new taxpayers instead of harassing those already in the tax net. “Once the notice is issued, the final outcome of the notice should be questioned by the concerned officer so that the notice does not prove to be a source of corruption,” he concluded.