LAHORE: The federal budget is business and industry friendly, not the public friendly and it cannot be imagined that the prices will not increase after budget while injustice taxation system is promoting the tax evaders in Pakistan. These views were expressed by the experts at Jang Economic Session on ‘Advantages and Disadvantages of Federal Budget 2015-16’, here on Tuesday. The panellists were Abdul Wadood Khan, Imtiaz Cheema, Khawar Butt, Imran Afzal, Abad-ur-Rehman and Abuzar Shad while hosted by Sikandar Lodhi. Abdul Wadood Khan said that deficit budget was presented by the government due to defence and other development expenditures and dependence was on domestic and foreign debts to meet this deficit. He said no pro-poor initiatives were taken in the budget while only 7.5 percent increase in pension and salaries was nothing due to highly inflated utilities bills. He said business through black money and corruption were being promoted through budget at every level. He said no steps were taken for broadening the tax net while practical steps were required to increase tax base. Imtiaz Cheema said that planning to create balance in income and expenditures was one of the basics in budget making while Pakistan’s budget was now very huge in size in which Rs1,286 billion allocated for debt servicing. He said increase in defence budget was unavoidable as country had been fighting against terrorism. He said tax evaders were being promoted due to injustice taxation system and every sector should be taxed equally while equal development opportunities should be given to each sector by government. He said cottage industry was unable to survive while prices of domestic cotton, wheat and other agriculture produce were much higher than the international prices. Khawar Butt said that budget had become a just formality in Pakistan. He said budget was a gimmick of figures while every month the government announced mini budget which didn’t provide relief to public. He said taxes were imposed by adding inflation rate in budget. He said Rs250 billion taxes burden was put on public in budget. He suggested strict action against tax evaders and said documentation of economy was vital to bring the cash economy in system. Imran Afzal said that poor and middle income groups were not kept in view while allocating the funds in the budget and the elite was benefited but commitment for implementation of budget did not exist in country. He said rulers should also pay taxes. He suggested equal taxation system across the country to increase tax net while tax base could be expanded by easy tax return filing system. Abad-ur-Rehman said that subsidy and withdrawal of taxes for agriculture machineries was a good step. However, no clear policy is given for agriculture sector nor any plan has been given to agriculture exports. He said agriculture sector was expecting some relief from provincial governments in their budgets. Abuzar Shad said everyone should pay taxes for revival of economy while taxation system was substandard in Pakistan. He said bringing all sectors in tax net could positively achieve the targets. He suggested bringing the tax rate down to 10 percent to reduce the economic issue while taxation system could not be improved without bringing tax rate down to single digit.
