The Pakistan Industrial and Traders Association Front (PIAF) has called for focusing on lowering tariffs on smuggling-prone items, increasing the share of direct taxes in revenue and lowering the slab of indirect taxes in the forthcoming budget to achieve key economic targets set for the new year. To fill the gap between demand and supply of energy, maximum funds should be allocated for the construction of water reservoirs and tapping of Thar Coal, he added. The PIAF Chairman Fahimur Rehman Saigol, Senior Vice chairman Nasrullah Mughal and Vice chairman Tahirm Manzoor Chaudhry in a joint statement observed that there is significant progress, both on fiscal and current accounts, showing surpluses and could lead towards a sustainable point. Referring to the data, he said that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has reported a revenue shortfall of Rs100 billion for March 2025, as provisional tax collection stood at Rs1,120 billion, falling short of the assigned target of Rs 1,220 billion. After receiving tax collections from imports and local sources, the revenue gap had been reduced but still remained significant. For the July-March (2024-25) period, the FBR collected Rs 8,464 billion, missing its target of Rs 9,167 billion, resulting in a cumulative shortfall of Rs 703 billion. Amid revenue challenges, the government has downwardly revised the FBR’s annual tax collection target from Rs 12,913 billion to Rs 12,334 billion for the 2024-25 fiscal year, reflecting adjustments to align with economic realities. The PIAF Chairman said that the culture of amnesty schemes should be eliminated as it discourages the honest taxpayers, besides enacting penalties in the law to punish tax evaders. Appropriate laws should be made to enable the government to seize local assets, in equivalent value, or levy appropriate taxes if any person holds any kind of assets outside the country for which source of income could not be established” he added. He said that export-oriented industries should be facilitated. “It is a matter of concern that exports are showing a low growth besides the fact that the country has all resources which is not a good omen” he maintained. The PIAF Chairman said the Protection of Economic Reforms Act”, 1992 should be amended appropriately to curb the practice of remitting undeclared income through unofficial channels outside Pakistan and the same being brought into Pakistan through banking channels in foreign exchange. He demanded the government to improve tax structure for developing business and investment. He said that the existing tax structure discourages investment and encourages rent-seeking. “A better tax system would help to improve the economic growth of the country, but unfortunately, the present tax system promotes rent-seeking while discouraging entrepreneurship as it imposes heavy taxes on business profits of traders” he added. Faheem Saigol requested the government to focus on reducing tax rates and expanding the tax base by bringing all exempted sectors into the tax net and suggested that the tax system should be so designed that it should give an attraction to invest in business ventures. He said that the circular debt amounted to Rs2.384 trillion by the end of December, according to a report by the Power Division. The report further showed that after injecting Rs20 billion from the budget to reduce the stock of debt, there was a net reduction of Rs9 billion in circular debt compared to the Rs2.393 trillion level recorded in June 2024.