Talks between government and traders over withholding tax have on Thursday ended again without any result. Both the parties remained firm on their stated stances and therefore, the stalemate still persists.Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif held 3-hour-long talks with traders’ Khalid Butt group. However, both the parties stood firm on their stances and thus the talks ended in a stalemate. Khalid Butt group has made it clear that it will support Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) in NA-122 by-election if the government doesn’t withdraw withholding tax. According to sources, Ishaq Dar directed the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) officials to continue talks with the traders. There are certain elements within the government that want traders to go home happy close to the by-poll. In the latest development, the government has conceded that the tax levy, implemented through the budget, will now be cut down to 0.2 per cent. The levy was initially 0.6 per cent, before being slashed to half. Additionally, and this is the bigger concession, the minimum threshold for this levy to take effect has been increased to Rs100,000, which means any banking transaction below that amount will be exempted from the tax. This arrangement will last till December 31. In the face of protests and concerns regarding protecting a sizeable vote bank, the government has backed down for now. What the authorities had originally been asking for was not unfair. They wanted traders to come into the tax net, file their returns and contribute more to national revenue than they currently do. But traders, already divided as to how much concessions they should demand, are reluctant to declare their assets and have become comfortably used to staying outside the tax net. They cite harassment by tax officials for their less-than-forthcoming nature. But filing tax returns is not a favour the traders would be extending — it’s legally binding on everyone making money on Pakistani soil, and making use of the country’s infrastructure to generate income. The reason why traders are divided is because they are unclear about what they really want and that is due to the unjust nature of their demands.
pk.shafaqna.com
