"Now we have to take bitter pill and expand the tax net and rely on savings," Fauzia Wahab said while exchanging views with business leaders, economists, students of universities and colleges and media persons during an open discussion on RGST held at Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI) on Tuesday.
President RCCI Ali Raza Saeed Shah, Senior Vice President Mian Ateeq, Vice President Dr Shimail Daud, and large number of people from cross section of society participated in the discussion. Supporting the government decision of imposition of RGST, Fauzia Wahab said that imposition of RGST will help government to broaden the tax net and bring into the tax net the sectors which were not paying tax in the past.
She was of the opinion that RGST would not only help in expanding tax net, but would also help in making a uniform tax rate instead of different slabs. She said that this was for the first time that Kerry Lugar Bill and Reformed General Sales Tax (RGST) were being discussed openly, while in past all taxes were being included in the budget. PPP-led government for the first time took the provinces and all other stakeholders into confidence on the issue and tried to build a consensus for revival of country's economy, she added.
Fauzia Wahab said that Pakistan lacked the effective mechanism of tax collection and it was imperative to streamline the tax collection system to fill the gaps. Fauzia criticised the trends of politicising the issues, saying that no one is talking about interests of Pakistan. The whole nation has indulged in mud slinging and letting others down. "But the time has come to think about Pakistan, and as a nation we must feel our responsibilities and duties," she said, adding that everyone is making hue and cry over energy crisis, but nothing was done for construction of dams in the last three decades.
"We need over a dozen dams at present to meet the energy and water crisis, but the lack of resources is the main hurdle," adding that we could generate the required resources for dams if everyone pays tax as a national duty. She said before talking about Afghan transit trade, first of all one has to go through the international laws.
She said that PPP-led government was making efforts to adopt the economic policies that can help obtain the economic independence. The policies are being drafted to bail out country from prevailing problems. Responding to questions, the ruling party's lawmaker said that Pakistan was only nuclear Muslim state, where democracy prevailed and people made sacrifices for democracy.
The country has independent judiciary and free media and above all it has powerful institutions. But, she added, "We would have to stand on our own feet to make the country economically strong and stable to protect the sovereignty and independence of the country". President RCCI Ali Raza Shah said that government had decided to implement the RGST without resolving the concerns of the business community. "Imposition of the tax will cause a new wave of inflation and increase in prices of daily use commodities," he added. He demanded of the government to start awareness programme regarding the RGST to educate the common businessmen.