LAHORE - The government should impose wealth as sell as agriculture tax without any further delay and ensure trade bodies’ representation in all trade related policy-making. The defence budget, like other issues of the country, should also be discussed in the parliament and parliament should decide the volume of defence budget, besides giving the final approval in this regard.
The consensus in this regard was developed in the executive committee meeting of the All Pakistan Anjuman-e-Tajiran (APAT) held here on Thursday in the newly-inaugurated office at Shah Alam Market.
The meeting was attended by the representatives of all markets’ traders boards of the provincial capital to discuss the ‘Budget 2012-13, and give a final call to the government to bring the untaxed into tax net by increasing the number of taxpayers as opposed to taxing the already taxed.

Earlier, the APAT central president Mian Abdul Mannan inaugurated the central office of the Anjuman-e-Tajiran Shah Alam Market Board. On this occasion, the new office-bearers were also notified. Among others, the meeting was also attended by Ch Mehboob Sirki, Ayyub Butt, Rana Shahbaz, Shahid Bilal and Shahid Iqbal.
“The government should also reduce the budget of the parliament and the public sector enterprises in order to increase development budget for social sector while existing allocations of the development sector should also be monitored as huge funds are being misused in the sector too,” traders observed.
The participants of the meeting of the traders’ apex body which was presided over by the APAT general secretary Naeem Mir, observed that the FBR can generate revenue equal to the total volume of federal budget  through re-imposition of wealth tax and implementation of agri tax.
The FBR revenue collection through wealth tax reached the figure of over Rs40 billion about 11 years ago when it was suspended by the Musharraf regime to protect the elite. And if this levy is re-imposed the tax department can collect over Rs1.5 trillion, said Mr Mir.
On the front of indirect taxation, the APAT executive committee panel concluded that the recent figures released by the government show clearly that there is a greater share of indirect taxes in total revenue from tax collection. This trend is totally opposite to developed world where direct taxes have a greater share.
It is suggested that turnover tax should be abolished while sales tax should be reduced to 12 per cent from 16 per cent and crackdown be launched for tax collection.