Islamabad: Atif Ikram Sheikh President FPCCI has said in a post budget press conference that the budget proposals are not business friendly which will discourage most sectors including exports. Regarding ease of doing business, nothing was seen in the budget, similarly, the revenue target seems unrealistic.
We demand that the current budget proposals be changed into a business-friendly budget to boost the weak economy۔These views were expressed by Senior Vice President Mian Saqib Fayaz Mago, Vice Presidents FPCCI Zaki Ejaz, Dr. Tariq Jadoun, Asif Sakhi, Chairman Capital Office Karim Aziz Malik, Convener Diplomatic Affairs Ahmed Waheed, Chairman Coordination Malik Sohail Hussain. Advisers President FPCCI Dr. Afshan Malik, Zahid Maqbool, Pervez Sheikh, Zubair Ahmed Malik, Tariq Sadiq, Mian Shaukat Masood, Samina Fazil, Ahmed Chinoy, Rizwana Asif and others.
Federation President Atif Ikram said that the measures are good for the IT sector. Not levying tax on solar panels was among the proposals of FPCCI which has been made a part of the budget, similarly the new ADR system will help in resolving tax disputes. Instead of bringing the exporters to the normal tax regime, one percent should be increased to one and a half percent, but they should be kept in the final tax regime, otherwise another way of corruption will be opened.
Atif Ikram further said that the abolition of zero-rated exemption will increase the inflation and the cost of production will also increase. Sales tax refunds and income tax refunds are a big problem, no concrete steps have been taken in this regard in the budget.
Like other sectors, no clear measures have been seen in the context of Green Pakistan Initiative to raise the agriculture sector in the budget. The current budget proposals are real estate-killing. The real estate sector can be promoted by bringing reforms in the construction sector. Imposing a withholding tax on the entire supply chain will discourage document economy initiatives. We demand that it not be included in the new Finance Act.
