Daily Times

KARACHI: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Asad Umar voiced his support for fixed tax regime (FTR) for builders and developers saying that abolishment of FTR will open doors to corruption, which would be detrimental to the national economy. He said he will raise the issue before the National Assembly.

He was talking to members of the Association of Builders and Developers of Pakistan (ABAD) on Saturday, during his visit to the ABAD house. ABAD Chairman Arif Yousuf Jeewa, Senior Vice Chairman Fayaz Ilyas, Vice Chairman Sohail Warind, Southern Region Chairman Altaf Tai and a large number of ABAD members were also present at this occasion.

Asad Umar said that PTI supported the FTR but ABAD should forward proposals to remove anomalies from the FTR. He said that he will raise this issue before concerned standing committees of the National Assembly and his party was also working on FTR for retail businesses.

Tax system should be easy and business-friendly to encourage people to pay taxes willingly, he said, adding that the tax collection style of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) had created problems for all businesses; as it made businessmen look like culprits when we look at the manner of audit and raids conducted by the FBR. He said that a free environment for businesses was the need of the hour for national growth.

He said that the ban on construction of high-rise buildings in Karachi will not only affect Karachi but also hit the economy of the country and development of the basic infrastructure was necessary.

The main problem of Karachi is that all powers had been taken away from the local government and handed over to the provincial government, he said, adding that powers should be given to those who had been elected by the people of the city. He said that economy should be boosted to free Pakistan from the clutches of International Monitory Fund (IMF), which was not possible under the formula of Ishaq Dar. He advocated broadening the tax base saying that taxation system of Pakistan was still waiting documentation.

Addressing the meeting, ABAD Chairman Arif Yousuf Jeewa said that after a prolonged agitation, ABAD got approval for the FTR in 2015 with the sole aim of a corruption-free taxation system and better revenue collection, but the corrupt bureaucracy of the FBR did not allow this system to continue, even for one year.

The FBR introduced a three-fold system for the valuation of land: the DC rate, the FBR rate and market rate, which was impeding foreign investments as foreign companies were hesitant to invest into Pakistan’s real estate business. He said that ABAD had already proposed to collect one percent tax on market value of the land instead of charging 10 percent on the FBR value, which will increase revenue collection.

He lamented that more than Rs 600 billion in investments had been lost due to the ban on construction of high-rise buildings and thousands of people rendered jobless. ABAD Senior Vice Chairman Fayaz Ilyas said the impression that builders and developers were not ready to pay taxes was totally wrong. On the contrary, builders and developers want that taxes paid by them must be beneficial to the government and not to corrupt bureaucrats, he said.

Published in Daily Times, November 5^th 2017.