The government is incurring a loss of Rs 1.5 billion annually due to exemptions of income tax and sales tax given to Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Provincially Administered Tribal Areas (PATA), said a spokesman of Sarhad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SCCI) here on Saturday.
He said that some vested interests, majority of whom hails from Punjab and other parts of the country, have established industrial units in Fata which have heavy levies in the settled areas.
They are taking benefit of the exemptions and causing huge loss to the national exchequer every year.
He said that the irony of the matter is that the amount earned by them in the name of the establishment of industrial units in these backward areas is never spent on the welfare and development of the people of the tribal areas.
The SCCI spokesman said that it is not against industrial development of the tribal areas, but this exemption is badly affecting industrial units of the settled areas.
He said that the industrial units of the settled areas are on the verge of collapse due to the wide difference in taxes and the fears of loss of billions of rupees invested in the settled areas of the province have increased.
He suggested that the government, instead of giving tax exemptions, should double the development budget of the members of parliament from tribal areas.
This increase in the developmental funds for FATA/PATA would ultimately pave the way for the welfare and economic development of the people of such areas.
"It will also discourage the illegal designs of the profiteers to take unlawful benefit of tax exemption," the spokesman added.
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