LAHORE - The Lahore Tax Bar Association has suggested the provincial government to hire its services for collection of agri income tax, which has been imposed for a long time though out the country including Punjab but not being implemented in true spirit due to unavailability of proper tax collecting machinery and experts in the provincial government.
The proposal put forward by the newly-elected president of LTBA Aeysha Qazi along with other office-bearers, including Vice President Noman Yahya, Secretary General Monim Sultan, Finance Secretary Shakeel Basra, Joint Secretary Ahmad Kamal, Ch Qamruz Zaman, Iftikhar Ahmed and former secretary general Farhan Shahzad. The newly-elected team of the LTBA was enthusiastic and quite hopeful to continue to make great strides towards the attainment of their professional goals and objectives. “The Federal Board of Revenue has already outsourced the audit wing to different audit companies why not the agri income tax collection can be outsourced to the Tax Bars, whose experienced and competent legal experts in collaboration with the district administration can initiate this task,” the LTBA team proposed.
Ayesha Qazi said that at least 25 per cent of the federal budget can be generated by collecting agri income tax but government does not seem to be serious in this regard. She said that tax lawyers are best medium for revenue collection, and the enforcement of an effective tax system is not possible without taking the tax lawyers’ community onboard. She said that the government had a discriminatory attitude towards tax lawyers, who help it collect 90% of all revenues. Ms. Qazi deplored the fact that experienced tax lawyers were not consulted in the formulation of government decisions or enacting tax laws.
The LTBA wanted to restore the ‘Circle-Based System’ after failure of functional-based system and gross violations of the Universal Self Assessment Scheme (USAS).
Vice President Noman Yahya said that after all kinds of experiments and facilitation under the self assessment regime, the FBR should now restore ‘Circle-Based System’ which is the only way to broaden the tax-base and documentation of economy without compromising automation.  Mr. Yehya said that under the ‘Circle-Based System’, each circle can closely monitor the performance of all taxpayers falling within the jurisdiction of each circle. It proved to be the best system in the past for controlling and monitoring taxpayers falling within the jurisdiction of each Circle. Secretary General Monim Sultan said that country needs reforms in taxation system by replacing the weak taxation machinery with efficient and vibrant tax collecting machinery for the economic prosperity of Pakistan. “We have a weak tax collection machinery; we have a culture of corruption; we have limited incentives; we don’t have the technology; so it is a combination of things,” he told the scribe.
Mr. Monim said that the country needs reforms in the tax collecting mechanism, because ratio of taxes to GDP of our country is just 10 per cent that is not sustainable. The LTBA executive body was of the view that in order to overcome the issue the government should hold dialogues with all stakeholders, including businessmen, tax bars and political parties aimed at taking every body on board and steps should be taken to enhance that tax to GDP ratio for the benefit of the country.