Shabbar Zaidi, the former Chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue in Pakistan, stated that only 300 companies out of the entire business sector in the country pay 70 per cent of the total taxes collected.
According to Dawn, Zaidi dismissed the claims of some businesses that there were too many taxes in Pakistan and no dividends. He pointed out that the real estate was the “parking lot” of untaxed money, and that with the support of the DHAs and army, a system had been developed to officially launder money through real estate, which had perpetual amnesty in the country.
He called for removing DHAs from the real estate business as there could not be fair competition between a state institution and private businesses in real estate, and also suggested that plots of land should be confiscated if construction was not done on them.
Kashif Anwar, the president of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry, argued in favor of amnesty on undeclared foreign reserves to bring money back to the country.
In another session, Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, the former Chief Justice of Pakistan, acknowledged that criticism of the Supreme Court for messing up big corporate cases was justified as the judges were not expert at finance and economics.
Jillani suggested the formation of commercial benches in the SC and high court for such cases. In a session on local governments, Ammar Ali Jan, the general secretary of Haqooq-i-Khalq Party, criticized the absence of local government in the country, citing examples of polluted water and waste management issues.
