The trading community here on Tuesday cautiously welcomed the Federal Budget for 2005-06 terming it Punjab-oriented, lacking incentives for the industrial units of FATA/PATA and not allowing import of second-hand motorcars. President of the Tribal Area Chamber of Commerce & Industry (Tacci), Ghulam Ali welcomed the budget as people- and businessmen-friendly. However, he said that it has given more attention to textile industries while other sectors have been given no such treatment.
He said that FATA and PATA of Malakand Division have been miserably ignored and no steps have been taken for promotion of trade and industries in that large part of the country.
Ghulam Ali said that for alleviation of poverty and eradication of unemployment from the backward areas of FATA/PATA, the government should have initiated some steps and attributed the industrialisation a main means of putting the area on path of progress and development. Otherwise, he said, consecutively ignoring of the area would further plunge it into backwardness and unemployment.
Sarhad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SCCI) President Niaz Ahmad termed it a Punjab-oriented budget, saying that a lot of incentives have been given to the textile, leather garments and surgical instruments industries, while the industrial units of smaller provinces have been miserably ignored.
He said that FATA should have been given focus in the budget for bringing it into the tax net, but no policy has been chalked out for industries enjoying incentives in the FATA. He said that the government has also failed in ending tax disparity between corporate and non-corporate sectors and bringing real estates under the tax net.
All Pakistan Commercial Exporters Association (APCEA) Chairman Mohammad Asif Khan welcomed increase in the defence budget and said that defence is the most important item of national budget. He said that increase in the defence budget would bring stability in the country.
He said that increase in funds for education and health would help in increasing literacy rate and minimising health problems of the people. He said that Rs 1.1 trillion tax-free budget actually reflects the aspirations of the people. He said that 5 percent cut in the income tax rate would help promote imports and exports.
Asif said that with the increase in salaries of government employees and pensions of retired employees their grievances would be mitigated to some extent, and termed it a positive step of the federal government. He said that the budget has succeeded in controlling the spiral of the price hike.
The APCEA chief said that the target selected by the government in the budget is now the responsibility of traders and exporters to achieve.
He was optimistic that exporters of precious and semi-precious stones of NWFP would be able to achieve the maximum target.
He also hailed the decision for increase in the developmental budget, saying that the amount would enable the government to launch maximum number of developmental schemes and opening new avenues of economic and financial development in the country.
Chairman, Frontier Customs Agents Group, NWFP, and member of SCCI executive committee, Zia-ul-Haq Sarhadi, welcomed government's endeavours towards simplification of the DTRE scheme and making the import-relating laws more effective to increase imports.
He hailed the efforts of the federal government regarding cut in import of vehicles aiming to decrease their prices. However, he said that the people are still awaiting formal announcement to allow import of the vehicles. He was critical of the levy of 6 percent Withholding Tax on locally manufactured vehicles, saying that it is too high and would shoot up the prices of the vehicles in the country.
Sarhadi said that people were expecting that the government would allow import of second-hand motorcars. He said that permission to import second-hand vehicles and revival of amnesty schemes would have brought the monopoly of domestic auto manufactures to and end.
He hailed the decision to exempt the services like dry cleaners and wedding halls from the ambit of the general sales tax (GST), saying that customs clearing agents should also have been exempted from sales tax.