Chairman FBR terms tax system ‘highly dangerous’ in letter to PM Imran

Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) chairman Syed Shabbar Zaidi has termed the country’s 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 per cent 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.

Earlier on Thursday, Prime Minister Imran Khan in a video message appealed to the nation to pay taxes.

The prime minister said, “I am here to discuss a very critical matter with the people of Pakistan, only 1% of the population is filing taxes and bearing the weight of the other 99%.”

“If you do not pay your taxes then we can’t help rebuild the country, we can’t work on hospitals, schools and basic infrastructure due to lack of tax collection,” said the PM.