(August 19, 2022)
Chairman of National Business Group Pakistan, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum, and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Friday said imposing a five percent tax on the productive sector will cripple it.
Many factories will close, production will be reduced and unemployment will increase if taxes are increased on the sector which is already paying three times more taxes.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that the industrial sector cannot bear the burden of more taxes therefore instead of targeting the industry, tax should be imposed on those sectors which are not paying tax or paying nominal tax.
Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that the government never imposed adequate taxes on agriculture, banks, brokers, property, transport and other non-productive sectors to increase its income, which is surprising because it causes a loss of over 75 billion rupees.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that the increased tax on the cigarette manufacturers is the right decision which will benefit the public while increasing the revenue of the government as this sector has been the favourite of the previous government and has been given immense benefits.
The business leader further said that the IMF is not in favour of giving co-relief to any sector, but the government has given to the favoured sectors and has assured the international organization that the loss will be compensated by imposing more burden on the tax-paying sectors.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that there is a demand to lift the ban on the import of 866 items, but the Prime Minister is in favour of the ban because it is saving a large amount of foreign exchange.
