New Tax Ordinance Frightens Pakistan’s Business Community

KARACHI: (Web Desk) Federal Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin says out of a total of 2.9 million tax return filers, one million filers are those that show zero taxable income.

The finance minister said this during a meeting with the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) officials.

Former KCCI president Zubair Motiwala, on this occasion, expressed serious concerns over the newly promulgated tax ordinance saying the ordinance had frightened people around the country because of the term ‘under filer’ which needed to be removed.

Motiwala further said that instead of appreciating the filers and acting strictly against the non-filers, the ordinance targetted the existing filers too by tagging them as under filers, which would open new ways of corruption and harassment.

Motiwala stressed that the term ‘under filer’ must be expunged from the new ordinance.

Tarin however clarified that victimization and harassment were not the purposes of the new law. He said the new ordinance was purely for non-filers and those under-filers who filed zero tax.