KARACHI – Chairman of National Business Group Pakistan, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum, and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Wednesday said imposing taxes on pharma business amid unmatched inflation amounts to depriving masses of the health facility.
According to the decision of the government, pharmaceuticals will have to collect advance income tax from the customers to deposit it in the exchequer,
They will also have to submit all record of sale and purchase to the FBR and the revenue measures will push distributors, whole-sellers, and retailers into the tax net, he added.
Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that the decision will not make business easy but difficult and it may trigger corruption and countrywide protest and strikes.
He noted that the decision will hit distributors and retailers as their cost of doing business will increase as there are around six thousand retailers in Karachi only and getting their NICs, NTNs and finding out that how many of them are filers or non-filers is very difficult.
All the efforts including a deduction of half percent and one percent of tax will result in differences and may pave the way for smuggling.
The business leader said that government should not rely on manufacturers and importers for tax collection but entrust officials for it.
He said that international oil prices are rising while tax adjustments will also trigger a hike in the price which will be diverted to the consumers.
In the first nine months of the current fiscal, the government has collected Rs370 billion which is above the target, he informed, adding that the monthly consumption of petrol is seven hundred thousand tonnes while diesel consumption stands at six hundred thousand tonnes.
The government should try to minimize the burden on the masses, he demanded.
