Tarin slams super tax imposition on industry

KARACHI: Former finance minister Shaukat Tarin on Friday reacting to 10 percent super tax imposed by the government on big industrial sector said it would have a negative fallout for the industry.

He was speaking to the media at the Karachi Press Club along with Muzzamal Aslam Tareen in reference to Finance Minister Miftah Ismail’s announcement imposing “super tax to cover deficit gap of last 4 years”.

However, Miftah himself does not know how much tax he would gather due to this measure, whereas the prime minister said that this tax has been imposed to reduce poverty. He said that with the 10 percent super tax, tax rate on banks and big industries would jump over 50 percent.

Tarin said that present government has entered into fixed tax regime for 90s and said that people would divest and no foreign flows would come on to this path of economic destruction.

The former minister also questioned the revision in the tax target from Rs7 trillion in the budget to Rs7.45 trillion, which he labelled as “bad economic policy of the present government”.

He pointed out that corporate tax was 25 percent in both India and Bangladesh.

Former finance minister warned that this decision would trigger an avalanche of inflation and all small factories would be shut down. He was of the view that the tax would destroy small traders, and it would unleash a storm of inflation in the country.

If the government imposed fixed tax, the big fish would have dodged it. He lamented that the government had put Rs43 million data in the dustbin, and said that it was not the previous regime but the new rulers who were taking the country towards bankruptcy.

He also accused the present government of presenting a hollow budget and said that the economic survey revealed the economic development that took place in the era of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

He also blamed the present minister of misguiding about IMF and said that PTI government gave a good performance despite Covid in the country.

He also claimed to have managed the finances to provide subsidy on the petroleum products, which were frozen by the previous government for four months.

He said that price control committees set up during PTI government have been dismantled and now inflation rate was at 28 percent, with further increase looming ahead.