ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Syed Shabbar Zaidi has termed the country’s current tax system highly dangerous for the economy.
He wrote a letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan drawing his attention to the faltering system of taxation. Painting a grim picture of the current tax collection system, Zaidi said it is not sustainable for the coming generations because of the low level of tax collection which is even less than 10 percent of tax-to-GDP ratio.
He said tax revenue is being generated through indirect taxes, adding a large number of people didn’t want to be part of the system.
Zaidi lamented less than 2 million people file tax returns, which accounts for just one per cent of the total population. 90 per cent of a total of 3.1 million traders are out of the tax net, he added.
He informed more than 75 percent of total tax collection is being collected from manufacturing sector and because of this pressure manufacturing sector is badly affected.
Earlier on Thursday, Prime Minister Imran Khan in a video message appealed to the nation to pay taxes.