Pakistan Computer Association (PCA) has urged the Government for immediate withdrawal of taxes particularly 16 percent GST on computer industry otherwise the usage of PC's would become so expensive that hardly a few would afford to buy it. Possessing a PC would become a dream for many. The poor and low-income segment of the society would be the victim.
Pakistan is a developing country but here utilisation of computer is far less than the neighbouring India. The situation is more alarming in computer science education. High cost of purchasing computer systems and accessories has made them unaffordable, discouraging educational institutions from imparting computer science education.
Khawaja Muhammad Aslam a spokesman of PCA said, "Lack of demand by computer users have led to closure of several computer hardware trading houses, causing unemployment, financial hardship and forcing them to sell PC's by weight."
He further said that the demand and usage of PC's even at elementary school level has become need of the time making them affordable. But it is an irony that in Pakistan owing to poor policies based on short sightedness of the policy-maker, the situation is worsening leading to starvation and unemployment to the thousand of computer vendors in the country. He passionately appealed to Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani to immediately intervene and come to the rescue of the computer industry.