KARACHI: Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI)'s leadership has, in toto, welcomed the federal annual budget for 2018-19; announced by Federal Minister for Finance and Economic Affairs Dr. Miftah Ismail on Friday evening.
Overall, this budget is better, said Chairman of Businessmen Group in the KCCI Siraj Qasim Teli and President of the chamber Muffasar Atta Malik at a press conference after listening to the budget speech at the Karachi chamber.
Other senior business leaders participating in the press conference were KCCI's former presidents Haroon Farooqui, M.Zubair Motiwala, M.Haroon Agar, Anjum Nisar and A.Q.Khalil.
They all appreciated the withdrawal of discretionary powers given to Federal Board of Revenue's Chief Commissioner and Commissioners which, what they claimed, was an old and major demand of the Karachi chamber.
They also welcomed the decision of conducting only one consolidated audit of a company and that would be done after three years' gap, if needed.
They said that these decisions would send a good message to the business community who ,otherwise , were embarrassed because of the FBR tax collecting officers' discretionary powers and frequent audits.
They said the tax concessions to textile sector would help develop this leading export industry of the country.
The representatives of the business community of Karachi supported the government's announcement for setting up desalination plant for the city to address its drinking water supply issue.
Besides, they lauded, the federal government's announcement of providing buses for the Green Line project, if Sindh Government failed to do that.
'Federal government should not wait for Sindh government, but bring these buses instantly because Karachiites are suffering badly from poor mass transport system,' appealed A.Q. Khalil.
M.Zubair Motiwala said it was very encouraging that Federal Government had announced to allocate Rupees five billion for setting up combined treatment plants in the industrial estates of Karachi.
The KCCI leadership noted it positively that the government had raised the limit of non-taxable income of salaried class up to Rs 1.2 million from Rs 0.6 million per year.
However, they showed their apprehensions about the budget implementation if new government comes up with different economic and social priorities.
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