(May 15, 2020)
FPCCI’s Businessmen Panel SVP, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Friday said the budget-making process amid crisis will be a challenge for the government.
The upcoming budget should be a traditional one but a modern document to provide some relief to the masses. It should not focus on enhancing revenue but growth rate so that eighteen million people could be saved from unemployment.
Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said documentation of budget is important but reducing the cost of documentation is more important so that it can contribute to revenue, national development and creating of jobs.
The former minister noted that decades of efforts have failed to strike a balance between expenses and income compelling rulers to carry a begging bowl. Now the old-fashioned style should be changed, the burden on masses should be reduced and direct taxation should be promoted. He said that the old guard has done nothing for the welfare of the country which is still collecting half of its revenue potential which is unsustainable.
The government should step forward for a real change to reduce poverty through education and vocation and provision of proper health, education, transportation, income support, pension and other facilities.
He said that the businesses that have escaped bankruptcy should be promoted through a just taxation system, reduced interest rates and utility bills, relief and other facilities.
Zero-rating should be allowed for the export sector, zero tax should be imposed on income up to one hundred thousand, loan repayment should be eased and all taxes should be brought down while the sick industry should be revived to more the wheel of economy, he said. Government should reduce expenses and its size, failed corporations wasting Rs 600 billion should be sold, infrastructure projects should be started and implementation of agriculture tax should be initiated.
