KARACHI: Chairman of Businessmen Group (BMG) and Former President of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), Siraj Kassam Teli, while criticizing discriminate taxation policies of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), urged the newly elected office bearers to focus on aggressively taking up and resolving the taxation issues during their tenure in order to provide some relief to loyal taxpayers of Karachi.
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Speaking at the 53rd Annual General Meeting of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry held on Tuesday, BMG Chairman added that the business community of Karachi, which contributes more than 68 percent revenue to the national exchequer, will not tolerate FBR’s taxation policies as Karachi, being the major source of tax collection, suffers badly due to such harsh and unfair policies.
“If the concerned authorities fail to pay attention to the grievances being suffered the existing taxpayers, they will have no other option but to stage sit-ins in Karachi to seek justice”, he warned.
The AGM was also attended by Vice Chairmen BMG, Tahir Khaliq, Zubair Motiwala and Anjum Nisar, Outgoing Office Bearers, Abdullah Zaki (Outgoing President), Muffasar Atta Malik (Outgoing SVP) and Muhammad Idrees (Outgoing VP), Incoming Office Bearers Iftikhar Ahmed Vohra (newly elected President), Mohammad Ibrahim Kasumbi (Newly elected SVP), Agha Shahab Ahmed Khan (Newly elected VP), Former Presidents and KCCI Managing Committee members.
Underscoring the need to go for aggressive approach, BMG Chairman pointed out that although FBR maintains complete database of tax evaders and has identified more than 700,000 tax evaders but no action has been initiated against such tax evaders. These tax evaders, Teli said, are living luxurious lives, using credit cards and frequently flying abroad but they don’t pay any taxes while the loyal taxpayers of Karachi city are constantly being overburdened due to discriminate taxation policies and FBR is acting like a stepmother against Karachi only.
Highlighting the policies of Businessmen Group, he informed the gathering that BMG has been constantly winning KCCI’s election since past 17 years and has undoubtedly succeeded in restoring the confidence of the entire business and industrial community of Karachi due to its transparent policy of ‘Public Service’.
Siraj Teli advised the new office bearers to assist any individual who faces genuine issues, regardless of considering whether the individual approaching KCCI for assistance was its member or not. Owing to BMG’s clear and transparent policy of serving the entire business community, KCCI enjoys the distinction of being the leading voice of the Karachi city’s entire business community and the largest chamber of the country, he added.
He also paid glowing tribute to the outgoing office bearers for making all out efforts to resolve a number of issues being faced by the business community of Karachi. Abdullah Zaki, Muffasar Malik and Muhammad Idrees have set a fine example for the new office bearers to emulate.
Earlier, while speaking at the opening session, the outgoing President KCCI, Abdullah Zaki appreciated the support and cooperation extended by BMG leadership, Managing Committee members and Former President which helped help him a lot in effectively handling the day-to-day affairs of Karachi Chamber.
He informed the gathering that the during his tenure, the Karachi Chamber hosted first All Pakistan Chambers’ Pre-Budget Conference which was widely attended by the Presidents of various regional chambers of all provinces of the country. “Diplomats of various countries kept visiting KCCI from time to time during my tenure which helped a lot in improving the image of Pakistan and I must let you know that we succeeded in signing many MoUs with various countries particularly India, United Kingdom and Indonesia to enhance trade ties”, he added
Speaking at the concluding session, the newly elected President KCCI, Iftikhar Ahmed Vohra, while expressing gratitude to BMG leadership for giving him the responsibility to act as President KCCI during the year 2014-15, paid glowing tribute to outgoing Office Bearers for striving hard to further improve the image of Karachi Chamber. “We will also make extraordinary efforts to not only maintain but further improve KCCI’s image by strictly adhering to BMG’s policy of public service”, he added.
Earlier, Secretary General of KCCI, S. M. H. Rizvi announced the results of members of the Managing Committee as well as office bearers.
The following nominees of the Businessmen Group were declared elected unopposed, Iftikhar Ahmed Vohra, President; Muhammad Ibrahim Kasumbi, Senior Vice President and Agha Shahab Ahmed Khan, Vice President.
Furthermore, Mohammad Ibrahim Kasumbi, Iftikhar Ahmed Vohra, Tanveer Ahmed Barry, Muhammad Hammad Iqbal Mandvia, Azhar Wasim Puri, Faisal Mukhtar, Muhammad Saleem, Muhammad Naeem, Khalil A. Feroz Bulbwala, Mohammad Yaseen, Abdul Samad Shaikh, Emad Elahi Shamsi, Mohammad Yaqoob Warind, Syed Muhammad Ashfaq and Arif Masood Baig were announced as Members of the Managing Committee.
The General Body, in addition to the confirmation of minutes of last year’s AGM, adopted the Annual Report, approved the accounts and appointed auditor for the current year 2014-15.