KARACHI: Chairman of National Business Group Pakistan, President of Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum, Mian Zahid Hussain has said that the budget is ‘overall balanced’, in which attention has been given to every sector apart from the industrial sector.
He said cost reduction of the industrial sector has not been addressed, so the export and manufacturing sectors will not be able to achieve the target.
As a result of the budget, agriculture, SMEs, IT, solar and many other sectors will develop, he said.
The budget’s increase in minimum wages and pensions and tax exemptions for businesswomen and youth are commendable.
Mian Zahid said that the budget has given incentives to several important sectors to develop the economy and they will give a clear and correct direction to the economy.
He quoted that Prime Minister Mian Shehbaz Sharif as saying that the budget has been made keeping in mind the recommendations of the IMF, so it is expected that things will move forward positively now from the IMF side.
Mian Zahid said that the tax revenue has been increased by 30% in the budget to 9200 billion rupees, which will be difficult to achieve from the current tax payers. New tax payers will have to be found to fulfil this as there is scope for tax collection of Rs 2000 billion from non-filers.
The non-tax revenue has been estimated at three trillion rupees. There is a deficit of about seven thousand billion rupees in the current budget.
After deducting the provincial share of Rs 5276 billion and interest payment of Rs 7300 billion from the government’s income, there will be nothing left and new borrowing will be necessary to meet the budget deficit.
He said that the IMF wants half percent of the primary budget surplus, which is decreasing by 150 billion rupees, while the increase in salaries will require 100 billion rupees.
He said that the difference between the official and non-official dollar rates has to be reduced; otherwise, it is impossible to achieve the remittance target.
Mian Zahid Hussain further said that in the absence of electricity, gas loss prevention, privatization program and import substitution, it is impossible to run without IMF while the talk of Plan B and C are just talk.
United Business Group (UBG), President Zubair Tufail, Chairman Sindh Region Khalid Tawab, Secretary General (Sindh) Hanif Gohar said that it is a reasonable budget to some extent when the government does not have the resources, then what can it give a better budget than this, but we can also call it an election budget.
They said that instead of increasing the tax net, the burden on the tax payers was increased, some concessions were given to the agriculture sector, which are commendable, while the concessions given to the IT sector were better, thereby strengthening the IT sector.
Zubair Tufail said that no measures have been taken to increase the tax net, but the pressure has been maintained on those who already pay taxes.
Taxes are taken from the independent and salaried class, which is a cruelty.
Increasing the salaries of government employees is a right step by the government, but the minimum wage of the labourer was required to be increased to Rs40,000 per month.
The measures taken will help to overcome the power crisis, withholding tax on non-filers has been re-imposed which will increase the revenue of the government, sales tax on cooking oil will be abolished, ghee will be cheaper, tax on used clothes. Abolition of is a better decision, it will give ease to the poor class.
Khalid Tawab said that apparently this is an election budget because this budget cannot be called business friendly, by getting tax exemptions for solar technology related items, alternative electricity will be available to people and will help in overcoming the electricity crisis.
Hanif Gohar said that we will have to take loans from the beginning because the government has not taken any steps to meet the deficit, the government’s tax target is 9200 billion rupees but the expenses are much more than that, it is a disappointing budget for the industrial sector.
He said that better opportunities have been given in the budget for the youth, this budget is good for the IT sector, but the question arises as to where the money will come from to pay the interest of 7300 billion rupees because the economy is not running, there is no export.
In such a situation that the industries are not functioning, the government has brought back the super tax even though the tax payers were already under pressure to pay the tax.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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