'Market does not believe you': PTI slams coalition govt over super tax

Reacting to the coalition government's decision of imposing 10% super tax on large-scale industries, former finance minister Shaukat Tarin said that the market did not believe in the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government anymore.

"Miftah Mian, with an overseas PhD, should have enabled you to acknowledge your own approved Economic survey which documents stellar PTI performance in the last two years," said Tarin in a tweet.

"You refuse to accept it as it exposes your narrative. Market does not believe you," he added.

Earlier in the day, after a meeting with the government’s economic team, PM Shehbaz announced the imposition of super tax to "relieve the general public of tax pressures".

“The collection from this tax will be used to alleviate poverty in Pakistan and will be funded by the high income earners,” he said.

Watch: PM Shehbaz Sharif's entire address on 10% super tax on large industries .

The tax will be applicable on cement, steel, sugar, oil and gas, fertiliser, LNG, textile, banks, automobile, beverages, chemicals and tobacco sectors.

According to the PM, the move will reduce the tax burden on the common citizens.

In a tweet, former federal minister and PTI leader Hammad Azhar said the super tax will end up further squeezing the formal sector of the economy, which amounts to taxing the already taxed even more.

"The economy is nosediving and such a measure at this time will reverse the industrialisation momentum that PTI generated," he said.

Former information minister Fawad Chaudhry also slammed the government, saying that the PSX nosedive showed the amount of confidence the nation had on the Shehbaz-led government.

He was referring to the KSE-100 index falling 2,053.35 points or 4.81% to 40,663.62 points before the market was suspended for Friday prayers.

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Meanwhile, PTI general-secretary Asad Umar said in a press conference that the tax was an attack on those sectors of the economy that have the potential of growth.

Umar also claimed that the government did not care about the people because it knew the public never chose it. "All they care about are the people who brought them [into power]," he said.