Islamabad: The business community on Wednesday ended its countrywide shutter-down demonstrations following an agreement finalisation – which concerned the postponement of the CNIC condition for traders for three months – with the government, a news source reported.
The 11-point agreement was finalised after a round of talks between the representatives of the business community and Advisor to the Prime Minister (PM) on Finance Hafeez Shaikh and Federal Board of Revenue Chairman (FBR) Shabbar Zaidi. One of the stipulation was that no action will be taken under CNIC condition for the next three months.
Addressing a joint press conference after the negotiations, both sides expressed their resolve to help the state broaden the tax net.
Shaikh mentioned that only 393,000 traders paid taxes out of the four million individuals operating across the country. He said that the government was striving to win the confidence of the business community in the former’s bid to increase the tax net. He also announced that a form would be prepared in Urdu for registration and filing of income tax returns.
As per the details of the agreement, traders will help tax authorities in expanding the registration of unregistered income tax filers. On the other hand, the government has promised to simplify the income tax filing procedures.
