Businessmen show concern over budget

Islamabad
The business community in a meeting at Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry has expressed many reservations on the Federal Budget 2015-16 as it has not come up with any tangible measures to help entrepreneurs in reducing cost of doing business and become more competitive in the global market.
Chairing the meeting, Muzzamil Hussain Sabri, president, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that business community was strongly calling for appropriate cut in general sales tax to spur the growth of business and industrial activities. However, government has totally ignored their demand despite the fact that GST in Pakistan was almost highest in the region making our industry and exports uncompetitive.
He said ICCI had proposed to reduce tax rates that would help in broadening the tax base, however, instead of bringing down taxes, government has imposed many incremental taxes that will create more difficulties for business and industry in addition to putting more burden on the common man.
He said that businessmen have been urging for zero-rated tax on export-oriented sectors, but instead of paying attention to their demand, government has further increased sales tax from 2 to 3 per cent on the sales to un-registered buyers that would create liquidity problems for manufacturers and would make achieving exports targets more tougher.