HYDERABAD: The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) has advocated introducing a single-window national sales tax compliance system as the current fragmented provincial regimes are not helping the economy.

Talking to Dawn on Saturday, FPCCI Senior Vice-President Saquib Fayyaz Magoonsaid a unified digital platform would simplify registration, filing and payment processes across the country.

Referring to the proposals submitted by the apex chamber for incorporation into the upcoming federal budget, he urged the federal government to restore the Final Tax Regime (FTR), which would be a step in the right direction toward achieving growth in Pakistan’s exports.

He said the federation has proposed a cashless economy by promoting digital financial technology that would also help to document the economy.

Calls for FTR restoration, cut in corporate tax and an end to super tax

“We badly need to focus on broadening the tax base, and FTR’s restoration is a demand of the federation to help achieve growth in businesses and exports”, he remarked and said that multiple taxation and then tax on final sales were increasing production cost.

He said that it was 1pc until last year’s budget, but now an additional 4pc tax is being collected, which needs to be withdrawn. He added that the super tax has been a direct burden on the cost of production and also affects export prospects, and should be done away with.

He said the chamber has also suggested that the government should strive to implement a cashless economy measure to broaden the tax base by digitising the economy.

“Consumers will have to be incentivised with certain percentages at the retailer level, and this can be done through the use of financial technology cards”, he said.

Adeel Siddiqui, an executive committee member of FPCCI, said that FPCCI has rightly demanded the restoration of FTR because the current tax system was unnecessarily increasing production costs.

He was of the view that the government needs to focus on information technology (IT) exports by capping the tax at 0.25 for a decade, until 2035. “IT exports have increased from Rs400-Rs500m to Rs54bn, and we need to support this sector like the textile sector, which earns foreign exchange,” he said.

Mr Adeel observed that a reduction in corporate income tax for manufacturers was also advisable, and that it should be cut from the current 29pc to at least 25pc, as it was invariably 21pc to 24pc worldwide.

Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2026