All Pakistan Business Forum President Ibrahim Qureshi has condemned Finance Minister Ishaq Dar's calculator approach in finalising the federal budget, claiming that it is focusing more on revenue collection and less on the fulfilment of its major objective of giving a long-term direction to the economy. The forum chief said that scathingly, "This budget shows the failure of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) as the reduction of taxpayers in active taxpayers list clearly indicates the failure of the government, he said in a statement on Monday,"
He called it "a number game with no incentives for industry and more privileges for far too few sectors". "The government is non-serious to explore new venues for revenue generation and no efforts had been taken to plug revenue leakages amounting in billions.
The aggregate of revenue effect from the new taxation measures amounts to Rs 253.2 billion and this approach is short-term because affluent builders are being favoured at the expense of industry and the documented sectors."
His criticism of the Federal Board of Revenue went on though, claiming that the board had failed to broaden the tax base. "The government instead of generating revenue from direct taxes has shown its intention to collect revenue through withholding tax. Moreover, the government after increasing the tax rate for non-filers in this budget has admitted failure in implementing the concept of filer and non-filer introduced in the last budget."
He also opposed the mini-budget of the Punjab government, claiming that it had slapped another 19.5 percent duty on services ahead of the provincial budget. "The Internet has now become a necessity for every sector of the economy, whether its agriculture, healthcare, education or SMEs. Small size businesses have also a monthly bill of more than Rs 1, 500. Making broadband expensive will have a very negative impact on the overall economy, as taxing broadband is like raising petrol prices, which affects every sector of the economy."
He went on, "The government, instead of scrapping Benazir Income Support Scheme, has not only extended it but increased its allocations which could be use in some productive schemes such as microfinance to the poor instead of turning them into beggars. The service sector, which generates 70 percent of the total revenue, has completely been neglected in this budget but the government has favoured few sectors including construction, agriculture, aviation, and so on, through budget.
"The government attempted to squeeze the neck of old taxpayers instead of taking efforts to bring new taxpayers into tax net. The government has increased customs tariff on smuggling prone items including air conditioners in the budget, which would promote its contraband imports in the country." He also blasted the authorities for not keeping its focus on resolving the energy crisis and allocating sufficient funds for the construction of big reservoirs, including the Kalabagh Dam. In the budget and that policymakers would have to address the concerns of the public since they suffer the most as a result of the power crisis. He then questioned claims of the government it had made about reduction in unemployment, improvement in per capita income and improved energy situation.
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