KARACHI: President United Business Group Zubair F Tufail, identifying some of the harsh and irritant measures as proposed in the Finance Supplementary Bill 2021, has urged Shaukat Tarin Federal Finance Minister, Abdul Razak Dawood Federal Commerce Minister, and Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to amend and make them business-friendly with the view to incentivize local and foreign investment, enhance industrial and agricultural production, establish import substitution industry, make indigenous goods competitive against the foreign products in both global and local markets, as the local market is flooded with foreign smuggled goods.

As an instant, he elaborated that the proposed measures to withdraw the sales tax (ST) exemptions would severely affect every segment of the society, particularly; the zero-rating sector and levying ST on various export-oriented industrial sectors would have a devastating affect on our exports, which after a long time had started gaining momentum.

He lamented that the main brunt of Rs 375 billion taxation measures proposed to be imposed through amendment in Income Tax, ST and Federal Excise Acts would have to be borne by the existing minuscule number of the taxpayers as no significant measure was proposed to identify new and potential taxpayers and bringing them in tax-net.

Moreover, withdrawal of pharmaceutical and capital machinery import-related Sales Tax exemptions would further deteriorate health condition of a common man and slow down industrial process in the country, respectively.

He recalled that UBG, since long had been clamouring that taxes and duties on all capital goods, not manufactured locally, should be allowed to import at zero rate to accelerate the pace of industrialization. “Similarly tax on seeds, fruit, spore, etc. for sowing purpose would serve as deterrent to the increase in per acre yield of agriculture crop, which is one of the lowest in the world.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022