KARACHI: The government owes about Rs110 billion of the business community on account of refunds, said Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) Chief Executive S M Muneer, suggesting that the government should immediately refund the amount to enable the community to enhance their exports by easing cash flow.
He said this while addressing a pre-budget seminar, jointly organised by the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI) and Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Pakistan (ICMAP) at FPCCI Head Office, Karachi.
FPCCI Sr Vice President Abdul Rahim Janoo, former FPCCI president and TDAP CE S M Muneer, FPCCI Vice Presidents Ikram Rajput, Shahnawaz Ishtiaq, Budget Committee Chairman Zubair Tufail, Senators Abdul Haseeb Khan, Bashir Jan Muhammad, Shahid Hasan Siddiqui, Asif Kasbati, Khalid Mehmood and a large gathering of the business community attended the seminar.
S M Muneer said that despite the fact that the business community is facing severe problems on account of shortage of energy, high rate of duties and taxes, non-payment of their refunds, they are still contributing in the national economy through making exports and earning foreign exchange for the country.
Zubair Tufail briefly explained the proposals of FPCCI for the coming budget and said that tax should be imposed on all revenue generating sectors including agriculture. He also emphasized on tax exemption on import of plant and machinery and explained that the imported machinery will ultimately be used in industries for increase in quality production which will resultantly reduce unemployment. He further that said the imported plant and machinery when starts operation, the revenue generated through should be taxable.
Zubair Tufail further said that FBR is a tax collecting agency and it should devise a friendly tax payer policy and avoid creating harassment to the business community. He further said that FPCCI is repeatedly suggesting that FBR should broaden the tax net. He said that to avoid the refunds and adjustments, the sales tax should be brought down to single digit 7% and single stage which should not be adjustable and non-refundable. He also suggested that salaried persons should be exempted from income tax up to Rs600,000 per annum. The government should also lay emphasis on promotion of SMEs and all those units with capital up to Rs10 million should also be declared SME, he added.
Shahid Hasan Siddiqui also shared his views and said that the GDP level of Pakistan could not be increased due to lack of prudent economic policies, lack of policy implementations, lack of optimum utilization of natural resources and failure to restrain the corruption. He further said if these could have been properly managed in the past four decades, our GDP might have been significantly improved as compared to many other developed countries. He said that in the era of 1970 the GDP of Korea was lower than Pakistan. The per capita income in 2001 in Pakistan was higher than India.
