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Tag: FPCCI

  • FPCCI invites FBR chairman for budget proposals discussions

    FPCCI invites FBR chairman for budget proposals discussions

    KARACHI: Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) has invited Shabbar Zaidi, Chairman of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to discuss budget proposals.

    A statement issued on Tuesday said that the President FPCCI Engr. Daroo Khan Achakzai alongwith Abdul Waheed Sheikh, Ijaz Khan Abbasi, Qurban Ali and Shireen Arshad Khan, Vice Presidents of FPCCI visited the office of Shabbar Zaidi congratulating him on assuming the charge of Chairman FBR.

    During the meeting the President FPCCI discussed various measures and proposals particularly for enhancement in number of tax payers and to increase their confidence level to achieve the set targets of revenues.

    Engr. Daroo Khan Achakzai further said that misuse of powers by the tax authorities is creating trust deficit and lack of confidence.

    The FPCCI Chief hailed the prompt decisions taken by the FBR’s Chairman in facilitating and providing relief to the taxpayers such as “Suspension of raid on any premises of any existing taxpayer without prior approval of Member IR – Operation and Chairman FBR”.

    Moreover, the FPCCI President also appreciated the Chairman FBR for not suspending any Active Taxpayer from Active Taxpayer List unless there is personal interaction with the assessee 24 hours before suspension and monitoring himself the list of all cases of suspension. The President of FPCCI also lauded Shabbar Zaidi, Chairman, FBR for not freezing bank account without prior intimation and notice to the bank account holder. The FBR Chief further said that the real estate is fast growing sector of the economy and FBR will devise various reforms. The tax amnesty scheme is also under process and will be announced soon, he stated.

    The President FPCCI Engr. Daroo Khan Achakzai invited the Chairman FBR to visit FPCCI Headquarter at Karachi and its Capital Office Islamabad to discuss FPCCI’s budget proposals and to share vision to revamp the tax system and machinery which is now the need of hour to be shifted in effective automated system to facilitate the taxpayers.

    The Chairman FBR agreed to visit the FPCCI soon to get feedback and first-hand information from FPCCI members and apprised them of FBR’s stance / point of view.

  • President asks business community to pay all taxes for curtailing budget deficit

    President asks business community to pay all taxes for curtailing budget deficit

    President of Pakistan, Dr. Arif Alvi, has called upon the business community to fulfill their tax obligations, emphasizing that this would play a pivotal role in reducing the budget deficit and enabling greater allocation of funds for development projects. His remarks came during a meeting with a delegation from the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) Regional Office, Lahore, in Islamabad on Monday.

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  • FPCCI praises FBR chairman for limiting powers of IR officers

    FPCCI praises FBR chairman for limiting powers of IR officers

    KARACHI: Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) has praised the newly appointed chairman of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for limiting powers of Inland Revenue officers in tax recovery through bank account attachment.

    Engr. Daroo Khan Achakzai, President FPCCI in a statement on Saturday hailed the directive of the newly appointed Chairman FBR Shabbar Zaidi, for not attaching the bank account of a taxpayer unless his Chief Executive Officer / Owner is informed at least 24 hours prior to attachment and approval of the Chairman FBR is obtained.

    He said that the FPCCI had been clamoring for long for keeping a deterrent against the misuse of discretionary powers by the tax officials for recovery of arrears and attachment of bank account under Section 48 of Sales Tax Act, 1990 and Section 140 of Income Tax Ordinance 2001.

    The FPCCI Chief elaborated that there were increased incidences of bank account attachment and other serious coercive measures taken by the tax officer under the garb of the Section 48 for recovery of arrears and such abuse of powers were creating trust deficit and lack of confidence of taxpayers in law which are pre-requisite for success of any scheme.

    Achakzai hoped that the directive would address the complaints of business community about the unnecessary attachments of the bank accounts for recovery of the disputed accounts from the bank accounts of the taxpayers without fulfilment of legal process. “In many cases accounts have been attached without prior notice of the CEO / principle officer owner of the business community,” he added.

  • FPCCI flays rise in air fares on domestic routes

    FPCCI flays rise in air fares on domestic routes

    KARACHI: Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) has flayed hike in air fares by domestic airlines.

    In a statement issued on Thursday Engr. Daroo Khan Achakzai, President FPCCI and S.M. Muneer, Leader of the Business Community, Former Chief Executive TDAP and Former President of FPCCI showing concern on continuation of abrupt hike in the air fares on all the domestic routes have urged the Aviation Minister, Ghulam Sarwar Khan to initiate a regulatory body to monitor air fares and evolve a mechanism for this purpose.

    They elaborated that in the absence of any mechanism or check and balance to control the price hike, the airlines have been arbitrarily increasing the airfares on domestic routes.

    They added that the exorbitant hike in the air fare had badly caused anxiety amongst the commuters particularly the business community who also frequently travel on the domestic route for promotion of trade and industrial activities in the country.

  • FPCCI hails appointing professional for FBR top post

    FPCCI hails appointing professional for FBR top post

    KARACHI: Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) on Tuesday praised the government for appointing a professional as chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).

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  • FPCCI deplores ignoring national chamber at China visit

    FPCCI deplores ignoring national chamber at China visit

    KARACHI: Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) has strongly criticized the ministry of commerce for ignoring the apex trade body at the recent important visit of Prime Minister Imran Khan to China.

    President FPCCI Engr. Daroo Khan Achakzai regretted that the ministry of commerce specially the Advisor to Prime Minister on Commerce for not helping the Prime Minister and wasting all his efforts due to their attitude and disconnect with the business community.

    In a statement on Tuesday, he cited an example that during the recent important visit of the Prime Minister to China, MOC arranged Pakistan business forum and B2B meetings between Pakistani and Chinese businessmen.

    “It was surprising that Pakistan Business Council (PBC) represented the business community of Pakistan at this important forum.”

    PBC is a non-elected body of few elite businessmen originally formed under the patronage of present Advisor to PM on Commerce and Industry.

    PBC Irrespective of its Professional merits or demerits, it cannot be a substitute to the democratically elected representatives of business community FPCCI, the national chamber of the country, but somehow the unjustified patronage of Advisor to PM has given it a more prominent role in shaping the trade and economic policies, whereas genuine stakeholders have been sidelined.

    This has resulted in deterioration of Business confidence as the policies are formulated more on intellectual ideas of few instead of input of ground realities based on input from the real stakeholders. Such policies would not help the Government to come out of its present crisis.

    The FPCCI president praised the recent achievements of the Prime Minister during his visit to China. The Signing of FTA-II and ML-1 projects will go a long way in bringing up Country’s economy.

    He said that the vision and hard work of PM is unprecedented in the history of the Country. His five points agenda of at OBR forum of mitigating climate change, establishing a BRI tourism corridor for promoting people-to-people contacts inter-cultural understanding, anti-corruption cooperation, poverty alleviation fund, and further liberalizing trade and investment flows by encouraging private sector and businesses is revolutionary ideas and were appreciated at all levels.

    Unfortunately he has inherited an economy, which is very difficult to manage, and he faces gigantic task to stabilize this. The business community has always resolved support for the Prime Minister in his efforts.

    It is worth mentioning that while Country’s own Ministry of Commerce ignored FPCCI, the apex trade body of the Country while the Councils of Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) of Chongqing, Tianjin and Xin Jiang Provinces met the President of FPCCI and immediately signed MoUs with him during the Belt and Road Forum at Beijing thus recognizing the importance of the elected representative of the business community.

    President FPCCI has urged the Prime Minister that his hard work and vision will only yield fruitful results, when his team will take the entire business community into confidence instead of patronizing few.

    He requested the prime minister to direct all concerned trade, investment, economic Ministries and departments to engage the elected bodies of Business community specially FPCCI for their input on all economic issues and give weightage to their nominations for advisory and consultative bodies, trade delegations and important forums abroad.

  • FPCCI signs three MoUs at Belt and Road Conference

    FPCCI signs three MoUs at Belt and Road Conference

    The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) has taken significant steps towards strengthening international trade relations by signing three Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) at the Belt and Road CEO Conference held in Beijing, China.

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  • FPCCI condemns terror attacks in Sri Lanka

    FPCCI condemns terror attacks in Sri Lanka

    KARACHI: Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) on Monday condemned brutal act of terrorism in Sri Lanka claiming around 290 lives.

    In a statement Engr. Daroo Khan Achakzai, FPCCI President strongly condemned the coward and brutal act of terrorism on luxury hotels and Churches holding Easter Services in Sri-Lanka, killing nearly 290 innocent people – including dozens of foreigners – and injuring nearly 500 people, including Pakistanis in a series of eight devastating bomb blasts on Sunday.

    The Chief of FPCCI, an apex body of the trade and industry in the country, expressed his deepest and profound condolence on behalf of the business community and the people of Pakistan in the wake of terrorist attacks in Sri-Lanka.

    He conveyed sympathies for the bereaved families on lost of their loved one in tragic incidents and prayed for the speedy recovery of the injured.

    The FPCCI President recalled, “Being a victim of protracted terrorism, Pakistan fully understands the pain of their Sri Lankan brethren and stands in complete solidarity with Sri-Lanka in their hour of grief.”

    Ackhazi hoped that the people of Sri Lanka would prevail unity and interfaith harmony amongst their ranks and files and the ugly attempts to destabilize their country would be crushed and foiled.

  • FPCCI felicitates newly appointed finance advisor

    FPCCI felicitates newly appointed finance advisor

    KARACHI: Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) has felicitated Dr. Hafeez Shaikh, the newly appointed adviser to Prime Minister, for the slot of finance and revenue.

    FPCCI president Engr. Daroo Khan Achakzai in a statement on Friday extended his heartiest felicitation to Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh on his appointment as Advisor to the Prime Minister on Finance for which he rightly deserved by virtue of his long and versatile experience of serving the country in various fields including Finance Ministership from 2010-2013; Minister for Privatization as well as Provincial Finance Minister of Sindh.

    He added that Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh is a distinguished economist who remained affiliated with the World Bank during his career and possesses a vast experience of dealing with multilateral creditors such as IMF, World Bank, Asian Development Bank etc., and as such is well versed with Pakistan’s financial issues and economy.

    The FPCCI Chief hoped that under his ministership the country would steer out of the multi-faceted instant financial challenges being confronted by it such as balance of payment; fiscal and debt sustainability, better management of public sector entities; reforms of transparency; eliminate the menace of corruption; ease of doing business; arrest of rupee slide; reform tax administration; revive manufacturing sector; enhance access to finance etc.

    The FPCCI President was optimistic that during the tenure of Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Finance, the coordination between the FPCCI – an apex body of trade & industry – and Ministry of Finance would be further strengthened for the benefit of both the stakeholders viz business community and the government.

    The FPCCI Chief also congratulated other Members of the Prime Minister Cabinet on assuming charge of their new portfolios including Fawad Chaudhry, Minister for Science and Technology ; Firdaus Ashiq Awan, Special assistant to PM on Information & Broadcasting; Ghulam Sarwar Minister for Aviation; Ijaz Shah, Interior Minister; Shehryar Afridi, Minister of States and Frontier Regions; Azam Swati, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs.

  • Doctors, lawyers earning huge money but not on tax net: FPCCI

    Doctors, lawyers earning huge money but not on tax net: FPCCI

    KARACHI: Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) has urged the government to bring professionals into tax net as they are not documented despite earning huge money.

    In its proposals for Budget 2019/2020, the apex trade body said that the professionals including doctors and lawyers should be taxed as large number of those professionals was not documented despite earning huge money.

    The FPCCI said that the government should make a comprehensive policy to encourage the people to establish industries in the country.

    The government should announce tax exemptions for 10 years to those who set up their industrial units within a time period of three years.

    The FPCCI said industrialization would help increase in employment opportunities and it would also generate more revenues for the government through indirect tax.

    Besides, industrial units should be provided cheaper electricity to make them more competitive.

    The national chamber also suggested the government to expand the tax net by documenting the economy. It said that retailers and small shopkeepers should be brought into tax net but rate of tax on them should not be more than one percent.

    Further, the FPCCI said that tax rates on immovable properties should be reduced in order to enhance valuation near to fair market value.

    The FPCCI also demanded that the sales tax should immediately be reduced from current 17 percent to 15 percent and it should further gradually reduced by one percent per annum.

    Corporate sector is heavily taxed at the rate of 29 percent which is too high and should be cut down to 25 percent. While, individual tax should be reduced as it is too much high at 20 percent.