Post-budget: FCCI hails budget measures

Acting president says it is people-friendly and pro-industry

FAISALABAD: Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) acting president Sheikh Farooq Yusuf has welcomed the new budget, terming it people-friendly and pro-industry.

He said that if the five years of the present government are compared with tenure of the previous government, there is laudable improvement despite inherited and chronic problems of load shedding, terrorism and negative politics.

"The government has achieved visible success but if year-on-year comparison is made, the government failed to achieve most of the set targets in different fields," said Yusuf in a statement released on Saturday.

He said the GDP target was fixed at 6%, but the government achieved only 5.8%. The 12% increase in exports is very encouraging in the prevailing situation but at the same time the widening gap between import and export is very alarming, which will have negative repercussions for the overall national economy.

He said the government has included a number of FCCI proposals in the budget, including trimming discretionary powers of tax collectors, continuation of zero-rating policy for exports and increasing the tax slab from Rs400,000 to Rs1.2 million.

He said that increase in salaries and pensions of government employees will also mitigate financial problems of the salaried class. He also welcomed the increase in house rent, which has been increased up to 50%.

Commenting on the agriculture sector, Yusuf said that a number of positive incentives have been doled out to the farming community, which will not only stabilise the segment but also play a pivotal role in reducing rural poverty. He said that 5% regulatory duty was levied on a medicine for the treatment of cancer erroneously, which has been proposed to be withdrawn.

However, he termed reduction in withholding tax on bank transactions by non-filers as insufficient. "Withholding tax on filers should be withdrawn completely while its rate for non-filers should be further curtailed."

In view of the increased use of computers in everyday life, he welcomed the withdrawal of duties on 21 parts of computers.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 29^th, 2018.

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