ISLAMABAD, May 12: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has sought “out of the box” proposals from the business community to meet with the challenge of improving tax-to-GDP ratio from 10.7 per cent to 16 per cent in next 10 years.

“We need to have 5 per cent additionally in the tax-to-GDP ratio without which no government could undertake any meaningful development programme in the country,” said FBR Chairman Abdullah Yousuf.

Welcoming the guests at a seminar, jointly organised by the FBR and Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry

(FPCCI), here on Monday, he said that his organisation had firmed up a ten-year road-map to substantially increase its revenues by having 0.3 per cent annual growth in the taxes.

Tax compliance, he said, needed to be drastically improved to rationalise the existing taxes.

The FBR chairman said that there had been 20 per cent growth in taxes during the last four years, while the number of taxpayers had risen from one million to about 2 million in the country.

He said that the prices of oil, power, steel and construction materials had increased manifold in the world, the fallout and consequences of which were also being faced by Pakistan.

High tariff wall, he said, was another issue that was causing low revenues and that the issue needed to be taken into account.

FPCCI President Tanveer Ahmad Sheikh said on the occasion that it was wrong to say that businessmen were avoiding to pay due taxes.

However, he called for extending more fiscal and non-fiscal incentives to the businessmen and investors to ensure more investment in the country.

Mr Sheikh demanded of the government to offer zero-rated duty on import of plants, machinery and raw materials in the new budget. He also asked the government not to allow export of wheat, rice and cotton unless the details about the size of all the three crops have been finalised.

He said the business community was not against broadening of the tax base to increase tax revenue.

However, he called upon the government to levy tax on stock markets and the real estate sector to receive adequate revenues in the next budget.

Saarc Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Tariq Sayeed, however, opposed the tax on stock markets and real estates and said other measures be taken to increase the revenues.

He said that a corruption-free tax system was required to be planned so that there was real trade facilitation to the businessmen and investors. He also demanded cut in general sales tax rate from 25 per cent to 10 per cent in the new budget.