Budget for new fiscal year to be very heavy for country’s industry

KARACHI: The budget for the upcoming fiscal year, 2015-16, will prove very heavy for the country’s industry.
Sources say that on the one hand, the government has decided to increase customs duty on different industries while on the other, it has approved the proposal for increasing concessional ratio of sales tax on certain industries and industrial raw-material or machinery to 17 percent.
Highly informed sources say that it has been decided that the customs duty on air-conditioners, refrigerators, electronic goods, chemicals of different kinds, CRC and other steel goods, food-packing, sugar and cement plant machinery, agricultural machinery, power machinery and plastic raw-material will be increased by 5 to 10 percent.
Moreover, the rate of sales tax on all kinds of plant machinery will also be increased.At the moment, the ratio of sales tax on several plant machinery stands at 5 percent and it has been decided that the same will be increased to 17 percent.These budget proposals of the government will increase the production cost of nearly all the industries and the prices of several items.