Showing a mixed reaction, traders on Friday termed fiscal budget 2012-13 "unclear" and "political" financial plan of the government as the Federal Finance Minister's speech left everyone to speculations. Talking to Business Recorder, Chairman Karachi Wholesalers Grocers Association (KWGA), Anis Majeed said the fiscal budget still needed clarity and details to understanding.
"It is the fifth budget of this government and is relatively better one," he said. He said Finance Minister, Hafeez Shaikh confined his speech to mere few minutes which should entail details and clarity. He, however, lauded the government's move to reduce the import duty to 30 percent from 35 percent, which according to him, will ease the commodities prices.
He said the government also reduced the raw material used in medicine making which is a good step towards providing relief to public. "In the budget speech all things could not be covered," he said. But he questioned the government's claim of providing 10 million jobs, saying how could such a big employment generation is possible without setting up new factories, and other institutions in the country.
He said the government's decision to relax income tax regime on Rs 4 lakh amount besides broadening the withholding tax range to Rs 50, 000. He said previously the tax was applied on Rs 25, 000 amount. Anis Majeed also lauded the government for decreasing the sales tax imposition to 16 percent from 17 percent. He said the budget is a better one, which could have been much better though.
He said without increasing the size of revenues, the government's pledges would face a daunting challenge ahead to meet the budget targets. He showed astonishment over the government's plan to provide unlimited amount to spend on undertaking of new energy projects without money in kitty. President of All Pakistan Organisation of Small Traders and Cottage Industry, Mehmood Hamid told Business Recorder showed dejection over the shortest budget speech by the Finance Minister dejection over the shortest budget speech by the Finance Minister, saying "it is a deceptive budget".
He said the fifth budget of this government will follow a number of mini budgets as unusual, adding that fiscal financial plan contains vagueness and lacks details badly to let everyone understand it. "It is the first episode of series of mini budget to come shortly," he believed. "Traders are unclear to plan their future line of action on injecting new investments in their existing business to expand them, as the government is non-serious to let the investors know of its key financial policies," Hamid said.
He said the government did have amount in its kitty then how can it fulfil its pledges, adding that the fuel price hike in the last fours increased the cost of business. "When this government assumed power in 2008, the price of patrol was Rs 63 a litre which skyrocketed to Rs over 100 in the last four years, which jacked up inflation as a result," he said. He said it was the election year budget and therefore is short in speech and lacked clarity to elude the nation with speculations.