This is apropos a Business Recorder op-ed "Covid-19 pandemic, leadership & apathy" carried by the newspaper yesterday. The writers, Huzaima Bukhari and Dr Ikramul Haq, have extensively cited China's example in order to advance their argument. But they are, in my view, seem to be mixing apples and oranges.
According to them, for example, "China waived corporate income taxes and VAT for companies purchasing materials that were to help continue production during the outbreak. The economic/tax wizards in Pakistan have not announced any such concessions till today. China also exempted transport industry, express delivery, and businesses associated with daily necessities from VAT, all epidemic-hit companies in the catering, tourism, accommodation, and transportation sectors. These can also carry over losses for an additional three years, to a total of 8 years. This is the way businesses are incentivised and not through meaningless measures announced in March-24-Package [ by prime minister Imran Khan]."
Here, I beg to differ with the two learned experts or scholars. China's social and economic model is vastly different from Pakistan's. Moreover, Pakistan is way behind China insofar as the financial resources or fiscal spaces are concerned. In fact, no country has adopted a successful approach to the coronavirus challenge that can rival China's. The Rs 1.2 trillion ($ 8 billion) stimulus package is what a cash-strapped government of Pakistan, in my view, can afford to allocate towards efforts aimed at containing the spread of coronavirus in the country.
Comments
Comments are closed.