Lahore: While demanding an immediate stop to raids at
business premises and disrespect to the tax paying community, the
Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry has urged the government to
constitute a committee having representatives from public and private
sectors to sort out the issue.
In a statement on Thursday, the LCCI President Almas Hyder said that
proposed committee should have representatives of the Chambers, Bar
Associations, Market & Industrial Associations and Federal Board
Revenue (FBR) as this is the only way to resolve the issue of undue
raids at business premises and disrespect to the business community.
“We want to pay tax but the method adopted by the tax officials is not
good”, the LCCI President said and added that disrespect to the
businessmen is not acceptable at any cost as they are backbone of the
economy.
He said that it must be eye-opener for the tax officials and policy
makers that traders have taken to the streets and started protests
against the raids and rude attitude of the staff of tax department who
are misusing their discretionary powers badly and conducting raids
without keeping in view the affects of these actions on economy.
“Government should understand that protests and strikes always hit the
economic activities hard therefore the raids should be stopped
immediately in the larger interest of the economy”, Almas Hyder added.
The LCCI President said that Section 38-B of Sales Tax Act, 1990 is
being misused by the officials of tax department. Tax officials are
visiting markets and godowns to unjustifiably harass the business
people. They not only raise unlawful demands but also carry all the
available records with them.