ISLAMABAD: The main body of traders in the country has called for extending deadline of tax-amnesty scheme in order to ensure maximum benefit and help promote tax culture.
“We wanted this scheme to cater for at least one million traders as even a thousand cannot be registered in 16 days,” said President All Pakistan Anjuman-i-Tajran (APAT) Ajmal Baloch.
He demanded that the last date for becoming a filer of tax returns be extended to June 30, said in statement issued by APAT here on Saturday.
He said current deadline for `Voluntary Tax Compliance Scheme’ is February 29, which came into effect on February 1.
The traders said the scheme was finalised after four months of negotiations, which was later approved by the Parliament after four months. Against this backdrop, the deadline was too close, he added.
The traders could not even launch awareness campaign in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa due to the murder of provincial head, said leader of APAR Naeem Mir.
“This scheme was the only way to bring the traders into the tax net and increase tax collections,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ajmal Baloch said that if the deadline for tax amnesty scheme was extended upto June 30, the Anjuman would launch a nationwide awareness drive among traders to highlight benefits of this scheme.
