President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF) and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Sunday lauded Finance Minister Ishaq Dar for accepting some of the tax proposals presented by the business community.
Withdrawal of some new taxes while relaxations in others will improve the image of the government and infuse confidence in the business community, he said in a statement. Sales Tax (ST) has been abolished on the poultry feed and reduced on the drinks as well as oilseed while customs duty on oilseed has been eliminated, he added.
Mian said that income tax relaxation to local mobile manufacturers and encouraging industry to import machinery on lower costs will help industrialisation, generation of taxes and jobs. He said that the relaxation granted to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been expanded to the province of Balochistan, while ST on insecticides has been reduced and Rs 20 billion have been earmarked for fertiliser subsidy, which will help agriculture sector if used properly.
Likewise, an additional four percent hike in the salary of government servants is a laudable move while 0.6 percent withholding tax on unregistered bank transactions has not gone down well with the business community. The veteran business leader said that eighty percent of all the economic activity is generated by the private sector which needs to be facilitated which is not the case in the FBR's existing refund and rebate regime. The exporters now view refunds an issue weighty than the energy crisis.
The veteran business leader said that business community has to pay for lack of co-ordination and struggle between FBR and provincial tax authorities. He said that provinces have failed to contribute one-tenth of the revenues which shows their lack of interest while Indian state government raise around 33 percent of the total tax revenues through sales tax and stamp duties.