It has become a culture to steal the tax bringing the loss of billions of rupees and hampering the process of the development and prosperity of the country, said University of Agriculture Faisalabad Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan.

It has become a culture to steal the tax bringing the loss of billions of rupees and hampering the process of the development and prosperity of the country, said University of Agriculture Faisalabad Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan. He addressed a seminar titled Punjab Sales Tax Act 2012 arranged by the US-Pakistan Center for Advanced Studies in Agriculture and Food Security, University of Agriculture Faisalabad at New Senate Hall. Commissioner Punjab Revenue Authority Faisalabad Imran Hayee Khan, UAF Treasure Umar Saeed, USPCAS Chief of Party Prof Dr Bashir Ahmad, Additional Commissioner Asad Aziz, Deputy Commissioner Asif Nadeem and other notables also spoke on the occasion Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan said that it is the matter of concern that the people don't want to pay the tax and find the ways to avoid it. He said that tax enables the government to run it function smoothly for the welfare of the society. He said Zakat and Usher is also a form of tax that is collected from the well off people and distributed among the deprived segment of the society. He said that we have to encourage the people about the tax in order to compete with the rest of the nations. He said that the country was facing the different challenges for which we have to make the joint efforts for the development, poverty alleviation and food security. Imran Hayee said the dissolution of power under the 18th amendment has shifted the sale tax on services collection from federal government to province. The different boards and revenue authorities had been established at the province level to address the issue in the province. He said that Sindlh took the lead in setting up the revenue board following the Punjab, KPK and Baluchistan. Umar Saeed said that the people must be aware about the importance of the tax and extra measures are needed to educate the people in this regard. He briefed the audience about Punjab Sales Tax Act 2012. He said all out efforts are being made by the university to sensitize the public about the importance of the tax. Chief of Party Prof Dr Bashir Ahmad also called for strengthening the system of direct tax. He said that the 39 percent of the tax is being collected as the direct tax while the rest of tax ( 61 percent) was in the form of indirect tax. He said that the government should enforce the tax system effectively.