KARACHI: Chairman Businessmen Group (BMG) & former President Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI) Siraj Kassam Teli has stressed that the PTI government must honor all its commitments made during a meeting with KCCI’s delegation on December 4, 2018 in Islamabad which was followed by another meeting with PM’s Advisor Razzak Dawood during his visit to Karachi Chamber on December 8, 2018.
He said that none of the commitments by Federal Finance Minister Asad Umer, PM’s Advisor Razzaq Dawood, State Minister for Revenue Hammad Azhar and others have been fulfilled so far. All the measures taken up till now have increased the cost of doing business and the direction does not seem to be right as it has triggered more inflation.
“The strategy to control inflation by raising the interest rates is not appropriate and they should follow the supply side economics by taking growth-incentive measures that would lead to rising revenue. Instead of increasing indirect taxes, they should focus on direct taxes and the ratio between direct and indirect taxes should start changing toward more on direct taxes”, he added while speaking at a meeting held at KCCI to discuss the Mini Budget to be announced by the Federal Government.
The meeting was also attended by Vice Chairman BMG & former President KCCI Anjum Nisar, President KCCI Junaid Esmail Makda, Senior Vice President Khurram Shehzad, Vice President Asif Sheikh Javaid, Former Presidents AQ Khalil, Haroon Agar, Abdullah Zaki, Iftikhar Ahmed Vohra, Shamim Ahmed Firpo and Managing Committee Members attended the meeting.
Chairman BMG further said, “We are in favor of incentives to export oriented industries but other industries are also equally important as they produce import substitution and generate huge revenues. The utility services being provided at two different rates have created a divide between the export-oriented industries and the general industries which will create more problems as the two segments would work against each other in future.
Siraj Teli feared that the government’s announcement to impose additional new taxes of Rs155 billion will be generated by squeezing the existing taxpayers which is totally contrary to PTI’s policy. “The exports will only increase if proper infrastructure and utilities including gas, electricity and water are provided to industries round the year on 24/7 basis”, he opined, adding that by not following the constitution and its Article 158 was sheer discrimination with industries in Karachi.
Chairman BMG urged the government that prior to announcing the Mini Budget, the decision makers in Islamabad must sit with the representatives of Karachi Chamber and thoroughly explain the government’s plans for imposing additional taxes so that KCCI could guide them well on where and how to apply these taxes.
He was of the opinion that FBR was misguiding the present government which was clearly visible in the steps taken during the past three months. “More discretionary powers have been transferred at lower level through SRO 1301 which was shown to Finance Minister Asad Umer and Minister of State for Revenue Hammad Azhar during a meeting with KCCI representatives in Islamabad on December 4, 2018 and it was really upsetting to know that the Ministers were totally unaware about it”, he added.
He said that these discretionary powers along with enhancement in Customs Duties and Regulatory Duties (RDs) were actually not increasing the revenue to the required level instead corruption was rising every day.
