The government has certified the Lahore Businessmen Association for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled (Labard) as a welfare organisation and as per income tax laws all the donations extended to Labard will be exempt from any sort of tax deduction.
Regional Commissioner Income Tax (RCIT) Haji Ahmad stated this while speaking at 52nd governing body meeting of Labard at Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry here on Monday.
Country Manager Coca Cola Pakistan, Rizwanullah Khan, LCCI acting President Mian Muzaffar Ali, Ahmad Saeed of Wateen Telecom, Labard President Pervaiz Malik, its Secretary General Bushra Aitzaz, Labard Information Secretary Ahmar Malik and former LCCI President Shahid Hassan Sheikh were also present on the occasion.
The Regional Commissioner of Income Tax said that all the purchases, to be made by the Labard, would also be tax free as it was working for the noble cause of rehabilitation of disabled persons.
Coca-Cola Pakistan Country Manager Rizwanullah Khan said Coca-Cola would further cooperate with Labard in its all future endeavours. He said Coca-Cola would use the Labard logo in its all-promotional campaign so that maximum number of people could have knowledge about the welfare organisation. Ahmad Saeed of the Wateen Telecom promised to employ the Labad-trained disabled persons at Wateen call centres in the country.
He paid rich tributes to Labard President Pervaiz Malik for the rehabilitation, training of disabled persons. LCCI acting President Mian Muzaffar Ali said the government should petronise all Labard-like institutions so that the stigma of disability could be removed from the face of Pakistani society.
He said that it was religious and moral duty of the whole private sector to ensure jobs to the disabled persons so that they could enjoy the status equal to other members of the society.
Pervaiz Malik said the Labard had not only organised camps in various parts of the city to register the disabled, but also focussed on building confidence in all such people suffering from disability. He informed the governing body members that the Labard Qarz-e-Hasna scheme was giving encouraging results and a large number of disabled persons were running their small businesses successfully.
The Labard President said that the association had extended training to thousands of disabled persons so far and it had decided to extend the scope of these trainings in coming days. Later, documentary on Labard was shown to the members of the governing body.