Islamabad: The business community in a meeting at Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) slammed the FBR decision to restore the powers of tax officials for the attachment of bank accounts of taxpayers to recover the tax demands and termed it an anti-business decision that would create harassment in the business community and open new doors for corruption, coercion and malpractices.

MianAkramFarid Chairman Founder Group, Ahmed Khan President, Traders Association F-10 Markaz, Tahir Abbasi former Senior Vice President ICCI, Akbar Siddiqui Chughtai and others were in the meeting.

Addressing the meeting, Muhammad Shakeel Munir, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that to address the concerns of the business community regarding attachment of bank accounts, the former Chairman FBR Shabbar Zaidi had issued instructions to field formations not to attach bank accounts of taxpayers without24 hours’ prior intimation and without approval of Chairman FBR, which had provided great relief to the business class. However, FBR through a new letter to Chief Commissioners Inland Revenue has withdrawn the previous instructions and restored the powers of tax officials under Sec-140 of Income Tax Ordinance Sec-48 of Sales Tax Act 1990 for recovery of outstanding demands through attachment of bank accounts, which has created lot of concerns in the business circles.