Karachi: Patron in Chief of KATI & United Business Group (UBG), Former Vice-Chairman MCB Bank, Former Chief Executive TDAP, Former President of FPCCI, Leader of Business Community of Pakistan and Chairman Din Group S.M. Muneer said the budget is encouraging for masses and the business community but discouraging for the IMF. He said congratulations to Finance Minister Shaukat tarin present the budget 2021-22 as people-friendly.
He said in the last interview that the new Finance Minister Shaukat Tareen is a good man and my good friend. He is sure that he will do a good job. Despite the cowardice, all sectors of Pakistan are improving. After which there is a strong hope that Pakistan’s GDP will increase further. We are lucky that all the crops except the carton have bumper production. We used to import a lot of things which made the dollar out. It was going, but people living abroad are sending 2.5 billion to Pakistan. This has never happened before. Today, Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves are also increasing.
He said that he hoped that no new tax would be imposed in the budget. He said that Pakistani investors could not afford any more new taxes. The government should give more relief to the taxpayers who are not paying taxes. He should control it. In my view, every Pakistani should pay taxes. Agriculture has also been brought into the tax net.
Developmental spending has been increased by 40 percent which will trigger growth and create employment opportunities, he said.
Taxes have been reduced on manufacturing and financial services, the minimum wage has been increased by 20 percent while government servants will see a rise in salary by ten percent, he added.
S.M. Muneer said that the wage and salary raise will force the private sector to increase salaries which is a good omen.
The industrial sector will grow due to tax and Customs duty relaxation which will benefit sectors like textile, paper, and board, pharmaceutical, steel, paints, chemical, leather, electronics, cable, fiber, optics, and automobile sectors.
The budget 2021-22 may trigger local manufacturing of automobiles and mobile phones and increase investment in the stock market due to tax breaks, he observed.
Despite the agreement with the IMF, the tax target has been reduced by Rs134 billion while IMF was assured to keep subsidies up to Rs530 billion but Rs682 billion have been allocated for subsidies in which the power sector will eat up Rs 596 billion.
Agreement with the IMF has not been considered regarding industrial support package and zero-rated industrial rebate which will also support industrial expansion.
Last year, K-Electric was given a subsidy of Rs16 billion but it will get Rs78 billion as per the budget document.
However, he said that the government should take steps to arrest the circular debt which may increase due to relaxations.
