Daily Times

Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) has said that the 17 percent General Sales Tax (GST) in Pakistan is quite high as compared to many other countries, which was a major cause of high inflation and high cost of doing business. ICCI President Muhammad Shakeel Munir addressing an iftar dinner called upon the government to introduce a single digit GST in Pakistan in the upcoming budget that would bring down the production cost, provide good relief to the common man in prices and facilitate the better growth of business activities, said a press statement issued on Tuesday. Munir said that the sales tax rate was 5 percent in UAE, Oman & Taiwan, 7 percent in Singapore, 8 percent in Iran & Sri Lanka as compared to 17 percent in Pakistan, which should be brought down to less than 10 percent in order to facilitate the growth of trade and industrial activities and reduce inflation for the general public. He said that high tax rates in Pakistan were a major hurdle in promoting tax culture and bringing more people into the tax net as high tax rates always encouraged tax evasion. He stressed that the government should focus on rationalization of taxes to make them affordable for taxpayers that would be helpful in promoting tax compliance and enhancing tax revenue of the country. The ICCI president said that the current tax system was quite complicated and difficult, which was not conducive to promoting business activities.