Pakistan finance minister urges traders to pay taxes to stabilise economy

Pakistan Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb on Tuesday requested traders to pay their share of taxes to increase revenue collection and stabilise the cash-strapped country's economy on a long-term basis.

Aurangzeb was addressing a press conference in Islamabad, days after the traders held a countrywide strike against the new tax scheme to bring over 3.5 million retailers into the tax net.

The traders have refused to accept the Tajir Dost Scheme introduced by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), which imposes a fixed tax on traders and wholesalers.

Aurangzeb said Pakistan increased its tax revenue by 29 per cent last year, but it was still at 8.8 per cent tax-to-GDP.

This is not sustainable at all. No country is sustainable at this level, so we need to increase it to 15 per cent, he said.

He said there was no room left to avoid taxes as the current situation, where the salaried class and the manufacturing industry were already contributing more than their fair share, cannot ...