LETTER: The country is less than one week away from next year's budget. Not only has the Covid-19 outbreak added to the country's economic woes, it has landed the policymakers in a 'Catch-22' situation as the budget-making process seems to have been hamstrung by woeful economic slowdown. Business Recorder op-ed writer Ali Khizar seems to have contributed, albeit informally, to the budget-making process by arguing, among other things, "The first step is to work on ease of doing business. Beyond optics, cost of doing business can be reduced by removing low-yielding but troublesome taxes. The government needs to rethink the whole presumptive tax regime. Over-reliance on taxes at import stage has to be revisited."

The government must look into the writer's proposal with a view to arriving at right estimates for fiscal year 2020-21.

NAUSHABA HASAN (LAHORE)