Business community rejects Budget 2009-10

Thursday, 18 June 2009 11:18

Says it is anti-business, trade & industry, full of anomalies

KARACHI: The entire business community of the country has unanimously rejected the federal budget for the next fiscal year of 2009-10 and said it was anti-business, trade & industry, full of anomalies and would empower the corrupt elements in tax departments.

At a press conference held at the Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI) on Wednesday the leadership of the Chamber has given a 48-hours deadline to the Advisor to PM on Finance Shaukat Tarin to come to Karachi and hold meeting with business community aiming at removing the underlined anomalies.

“The raised concerns should be addressed before the formal approval of the proposed budget in the national assembly likely on June 26,” demanded the leader of Businessman Group, Siraj Kassam Teli.

Pakistan Bedwear Exporters Association (PBEA), Chairman, Shabbir Ahmed appealed to the Members of National Assembly (MNAs) not to pass the proposed budget before it was rectified, while KCCI President Anjum Nisar seconded the appeal on behalf of the entire business community of the country.

Textile industrialist S M Obaid and Rafiq Habib Godil, Chairman, Pakistan Knitwear & Sweaters Exporters Association (PKSEA), threatened to relocate their textile units to Bangladesh, if anomalies in budget were not removed in the given time. They recorded their statements at another press conference held on the issue of budget anomalies by the Council of All Textile Associations (CAPTA) at PHMA office under the chairmanship of Zubair Motiwala, who is also Advisor to Chief Minister Sindh on Investment.

Underlining the anomalies, Former President-KCCI Haroon Farooqi said that there used to be only one tax commission to deal with the pertaining issues, but from next fiscal year there would be four tax commissions under different heads.

Moreover, government has conferred discretionary powers to these commissioners and other officials in the taxation department. This is said in the proposed finance bill that any of the tax commissioners can appoint an auditor and deploy him at any department of the industry for any purpose.

Therefore, the giving of these discretionary power to them and increase in number of commissioners are meant to harass the business community and would empower the elements of corruption in the system, he reiterated.

Moreover, the condition of selling goods to only those buyers who either provide their NTN numbers or CNIN numbers is also not practically viable, highlighted many participants of the meetings held at KCCI and PHMA.

Hundred per cent increase in Withholding Tax (form two per cent to four per cent) on import of raw material would prove fatal for many industries in the provided environment for doing business here. Moreover, the withdrawal of subsidies from electricity and gas would automatically raise the cost of doing business here, while shortfall in generation of electricity was rising on every passing day too.

Businessmen also criticised the proposed imposition of five per cent carbon-tax on carbon-less fuel i.e. Compressed Natural Gas (GAS), which was known as green fuel at world because of its environment friendly nature.

The government has set a growth target of 1.8 per cent for Large Scale Manufacturing (LSM) sector for the next fiscal year. But to achieve this target, the LSM will have to grow by 9.5 per cent next year, as this government-neglected major sector is measured to post a decline of 7.7 per cent at the end of current fiscal year, calculated Motiwala.

They asked as why the government failed to tax landlords in agriculture sector, who made massive transactions on the sale & purchase of orchards and explained themselves that as assemblies are represented by 70-80 per cent feudal lords. They felt that they should also do lobbying in assemblies to get their issues resolve.

The government has declared the next fiscal year, which is round the corner to being, as the year of industrial revival in the country, but each angry businessman declared this government’s slogan as a joke with the industry.

Nisar said the KCCI was backed by 18 other chambers of the country to resolve this anomalies issue with the government. These chambers were included of Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Lahore, Faisalabad, Sarhad, Sargodha, Shakupura, Sialkot and others.

During the press conference, president of many chambers were taken on telephone and everyone of them rejected the budget while couple of them said they would not forward budget proposals to the government from next year, as their proposals are not due considerations.