Business forum criticises budget

Says govt needs to take steps to create 2.5m jobs annually

LAHORE: Businessmen have emphasised that Pakistan needs to create 2.5 million jobs annually in order to accommodate the growing number of job-seekers, but the government has failed to take concrete steps, neither in the federal budget, nor in the Punjab budget, for the unemployed youth.

Commenting on the 2017-18 federal budget, All Pakistan Business Forum President Ibrahim Qureshi termed it a bubble budget, apparently creating some good feeling, but devoid of substance.

He lashed out at what he called “calculator” approach in finalising the budget, which focused more on revenue collection and less on meeting its major objective of giving a long-term direction to the economy.

The budget showed failure of the Federal Board of Revenue, which was evident from reduction in the number of taxpayers in the active taxpayers’ list, he added.

“The government is not serious about exploring new avenues of revenue generation and no efforts have been made to plug revenue leakages amounting to billions of rupees.”

He decried that there were no incentives for the industry whereas a few sectors got more privileges.

Qureshi pointed out that the government after increasing the tax rate for non-filers of tax returns admitted its failure to implement the concept of filers and non-filers introduced in the previous budget.

He also criticised the Punjab government for slapping duty on internet services in the budget for FY18.

“Taxing broadband is like increasing petrol prices, which affects every sector of the economy,” he remarked.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 6^th, 2017.

Like Business on Facebook, follow @TribuneBiz on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.