KARACHI: President Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI) Junaid Esmail Makda, while referring to the unrealistic legislation implemented through the Finance Bill 2019-20 which pertains to submitting CNIC along with complete and accurate particulars of unregistered persons in case of goods being supplied to such individuals, said that the Karachi-based importers have requested/ demanded from the government to defer this legislation for a period of at least three months so that they could sell/ offload their existing stocks and subsequently, either pack up their businesses or continue their activities by confining themselves to registered persons only.
In a statement issued, Junaid Makda advocated that the importers were rightly demanding three months relaxation so that during the said time factor, they could sell/ offload their existing stocks and then either reduce imports as per provisions in the new Finance Bill 2019 or completely pack up/ close down their businesses.
He said that the business community can neither force the unregistered persons to get registered nor collect CNICs on behalf of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) as it was not its job to compile the information of unregistered persons for FBR.
Junaid Makda reiterated that legislations should only be implemented through enactment of the act, not through the Finance Bill 2019 rather every proposed legislation should at first be debated in the parliament to assess its impact on the economy and business environment. If it seems to be beneficial and does not adversely impact any segment of the economy, it should be made part of the law, he opined. “Representatives of the business community must also be invited to attend all the post budget sessions so that we could get firsthand information and better understand all the pros and cons”, he added.
