Islamabad : Samina Fazil, founder President of the Islamabad Women’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IWCCI), said on Friday that the federal budget is a document devoid of vision.
She said that the federal budget has nothing for the people and businesswomen and everything for the influential elite.
Speaking to the businesswomen, Samina Fazil said that the budget has further increased the burden on the masses, the salaried class and the business community.
She added that taxes have been increased on the vulnerable while the government is expanding its lavish spending instead of reducing it, which is regrettable.
She said that the mini budget would be introduced in a few months as there is no end to lavish spending by the government, and millions of people would be pushed below the poverty line.
The record increase in taxes in the budget will also lead to a huge rise in inflation. The income from taxes will be spent on the luxuries of the elite, and our leaders will continue to beg to run the country.
Samina Fazil said that if the FBR were doing its job, there would be no need to increase taxes on the people. However, since this institution wants to avoid receiving direct taxes, the government uses taxation as an option to break the people’s backs.
FBR has become a hub of corruption and incompetence, and its top officials always dance to the tune of the influential elite, she observed.
She said that the government will never include property tycoons, landlords, wholesalers, retailers, and the cigarette and broker mafia in the tax net and will never revise the cruel agreements made with IPPs that have bankrupted the country.
“The elite and the government stand on the one side, while the disappointed masses are on the other,” she said.
She added that the government says it is trying to increase exports, and at the same time, it is levying taxes on this sector, which indicates confusion.
Samina Fazil said that increased taxes on the salaried class have made it impossible for lower-class employees to make a living. Taxes have been increased in all sectors, which will depress the economy.
She said the deprivations of the weaker sections will continue to increase, claims against the ground realities will continue, and finance ministers will continue to be imported to solve local problems.
