Losses suffered due to Karachi violence: Cottage industry wants 3-year tax holiday

RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: The country's ailing cottage industry wants the government to introduce a budgetary plan of three-year tax holiday for small-scale manufacturers to offset the financial losses they have suffered because of the persistent violence in the city.

Talking to Business Recorder, President of All Pakistan Organisation of Small Traders and Cottage Industry, Mehmood Hamid, said the government should exempt the Karachi's small traders of taxes for the next three years so that the negative impact which had hit their businesses in years of violence could be scaled down.

"Target killings and violence claimed 400 lives in the last four months of the current fiscal year," he pointed out, saying that the government should declare Karachi a violence-hit city and give budgetary concessions to the businessmen community of the metropolis.

He said the terrorists, vandals and extortionists were choosing traders and their businesses, adding that so far 13 grenades were hurled at shops in different areas of the city. He said the government should also ensure protection to the traders as coordinated crimes against the businessmen community in the metropolis had been increased.

"Over 150 shops have been set ablaze in the violence, and over 50 incidents have been registered with police of traders' abductions for ransom," Hamid said.

Extortionists received million of rupees ransom from the abducted traders while the law enforcers paid no attention to protect the aggrieved businessmen against the organised crime, he said.

"The government should evolve the fiscal budget keeping in view the country's available resources instead of under the pressure of IMF," he suggested.

He demanded of the government to freeze the petroleum, gas and electricity prices with 30 percent reduction and tax the agriculture income. He urged the government to patronise the cottage industry of the province which had the potential to boost the country's total exports by 40 percent. "It will also help the country earn more foreign exchange," he added.

Hamid suggested the government to broaden the existing tax net and retain the self-assessment scheme. He said the FBR should also improve its workings as it had only 17 million taxpayers on its database in the country of 1800 million people.