Karachi (July-08-2024) Chairman of FPCCI Advisory Board and National Business Group Pakistan, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals
Forum, All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain said on Monday that people are
finding it harder and harder to live with this budget.
He said every necessity of life has become very expensive and out of the reach of most of the people.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that while non-filers and tax defaulters find novel ways to avoid taxes, existing taxpayers will be
forced to bear the burden of government new tax measures to boost collection.
Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said the volume of current budget is 18500 billion rupees.
Despite the taxes of 12900 billion rupees, which is an increase by 40%, it has a deficit of 8500 billion rupees.
He said the government will have to borrow 5700 billion rupees to bridge the gap. In the current budget, ten thousand
billion rupees have been set aside for debt servicing. In contrast, next year, 11 thousand billion rupees will be required.
This means that taxes must be increased by another five thousand billion rupees but the budget deficit will remain the
same.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that changes and experiments have been made in every sector of business activities, including
exports, in the current budget.
As a result of these experiments, it is widely feared that the economy will be damaged if exports decrease by four to five
billion dollars.
The business leader said that the export sector should have been left alone to function peacefully.
The tax burden on the salaried has been increased. Government spending, salaries, and pensions of top officials have
increased, but the common people have been left behind.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that the government has claimed to work on pension reforms and the imposition of tax on
traders. Still, this work will continue until the next budget, while efforts will be made to save costs by closing some
departments.
He noted that if all the economic activities were digitized, the term non-filer would be automatically abolished, the tax
base would be widened, and the government would get the tax comfortably.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that due to the measures proposed in the budget, the traders will not come into the tax net at
any cost. Still, they will be attracted to the cash economy.
He said that public anxiety is growing in masses and businesses but the government is not ready to follow the suggestions
of FPCCI, the largest organization of the business community, which is a mistake.
FPCCI is still prepared to support the government in bringing the country out of economic recession, increasing exports,
broadening the tax net, and providing convenience to the people, he said.
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