LAHORE, Sept 18 (INP): The top leadership of United Business Group (UBG) Tuesday strongly demanded of the Pakistan Tehrik e Insaf government to bring 3.5 million non tax fillers identified by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) into the tax net.

This was stated by central chairman UBG and veteran trade leader Iftikhar Ali Malik, who is also Senior Vice President (SVP) SAARC Chamber, while talking to a delegation of traders here Tuesday.

He said Pakistan needed $15-16 billion worth of support to avoid IMF loan but the World Bank, Islamic Development Bank and bilateral credit from a consortium of donors would raise more than half – $9 billion. “We will be left with a shortfall of around $7-8 billion to bridge either through grants and assistance from friendly countries or from the IMF,” he said.

He said comprehensive tax reform is one such issue on which there is consensus among all the political parties. It is, thus, imperative that in the first 100-days, this issue is given the top priority. The Parliament must debate the various options available for meaningful and productive tax reforms and then go for necessary changes and their implementation.

He said Pakistan will have to increase collection at all levels of governments to bridge monstrous fiscal deficit that reached the level of 6.8% of GDP (Rs 2.3 trillion) for the fiscal year 2017-18. The new federal and provincial governments must immediately prepare finance bills to tax the rich and mighty through alternate minimum tax of 2.5% of net worth and property tax according to the size of the house/office.

“ The cumbersome Tax returns system should be simplified. Help desk of Punjab Revenue Authority should be established, it suggested. Separate accounts for sales and income tax returns should also be set up. He further proposed that the federal and provincial tax systems should be harmonized, double taxation should be discouraged, and direct taxes should be encouraged instead of indirect tax system,” he added.

Iftikhar Ali Malik said that skill development should be focused, while developing any education policy, as the government is increasing number of universities in the country instead of quality of education and neglecting importance of technical education in the syllabus. There is a dire need of skilled manpower in the country, as China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects bring many job opportunities in the country, he added.

INP/AK