LAHORE: Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF) has said that falling exports, six percent erosion in exchange rate and new taxes worth Rs 40 billion will break the back of the masses and business community.
New taxes are being imposed on behest of the IMF as exports fell by $1.25 billion in the first four months of the current fiscal year while FBR is held responsible for the fall in revenue which was result of unrealistic collection targets, it said.
The reduction in imports by 12.5 percent also resulted in reduction of revenue which should not be discounted, it said. the president of the PBIF, All Karachi Industrial Alliance (AKIA) and first vice chairman of the businessmen panel of the FPCCI Mian Zahid Hussain.
He said that export managers prefer politics over their responsibilities which damaged exports, revenue and external sector leaving government with no option but to slap new taxes.
Delay in imposing new taxes on existing taxpayers can jeopardise 10th tranche of 502 million dollars of IMF loan worth 6.2 billion dollars, he added. Mian Zahid said that laxity on the part of IMF slowed the pace of reforms in Pakistan which is against the national interests.
He said that government is yet to announce new taxes and the targeted sectors which has triggered anxiety among the business community.
