FPCCI hails appointment of Rukhsana Yasmin as Chairperson FBR

ISLAMABAD, Jun 27 (APP):The Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) and business community Wednesday hailed appointment of Rukhsana Yasmin as chairperson Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and said that she would take effective steps for addressing problems confronting the corporate sector and traders.
Welcoming her appointment, FPCCI Chief Ghazandar Bilour said this is an honour of the country that first time in history, a woman has been appointed to assume the charge of the country’s revenue top collecting agency,” according to a press release issued here.
He expressed hope that she will fully exploit her God gifted qualities of head and heart to restructure the entire taxation system of the country in order to make it business friendly. He further said she would take sustainable and durable result oriented actions to broaden tax base in Pakistan and potential non-tax payers must be brought into tax net at all cost and chambers will cooperate with the government in this regard.
Meanwhike , SAARC CCI Senior Vice President (SVP) and central chairman United Business Group (UBG) Iftikhar Ali Malik said FPCCI and UBG in principle, agreed to lend helping hand to FBR in this regard.
He said plugging of revenue leakage and broadening of tax net will ultimately benefit the existing tax payers in terms of reduction in heavy taxation.
He said that all chambers across the country will not only resolve the issues being faced by the traders but also convince the trading community to pay their due taxes timely.”Around 1.2 million people pay taxes in the country while the number of traders paying tax on electricity bills surpasses seven million, this gap can be bridged through sincere efforts backed by the government,” he added.
He said Rukhsana Yasmin is a senior most officer of the FBR having with life long rich experience of working both in Pakistan Customs Service and Inland Revenue Service.
Iftikhar said that the government should offer special package for power and gas tariffs for rapid industrial growth on the pattern of China.
He hoped that Rukhsana Yasmin will introduce some special package for industry especially in furniture sector which is lagging behind.
He said that the taxation and growth should go hand in hand, and it can only be done through fair taxation system. “If growth of business and economy will be choked there will be no increase in tax collection,” he added. He said that there were 80 million CNICs holders in the country and after applying criteria of exclusion of having age below 25 and above age of 80 years, residing in rural areas, earning income from agriculture or even other mechanism, there should be 8 to 10 million people who should have been brought into tax net. But, first, he said the FBR will have to place fair taxation system that does not allow choking of growth of businesses legitimate profits.
“Freedom from political pressures, a clear digitalised system and above all the will to upgrade and cleanse the system is what the FBR needs,” he concluded.