PHOTO: FILE
Meanwhile, steel mills in Landi Kotal have decided to shut down their operations after the government served them with tax notices despite past promises not to do so.
In a statement issued on Sunday, United Business Group (UBG) leader Ilyas Ahmad Bilour termed announcements from Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Shabbar Zaidi about not inflating prices of the essentials as ridiculous.
Bilour, who is also a leader of the opposition Awami National Party (ANP) said that the government has increased prices by as much as Rs20 per kilogramme on ghee and cooking oil and that the FBR chief’s comments in a meeting with the business community in Lahore on Saturday had proved that he was little more than a spokesperson for Prime Minister Imran Khan.
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He asserted that PM Imran was ruining the country’s economy and that they were behaving as if the entire nation was full of dacoits and looters.
The UBG chief said that the whole business community was protesting against PM Imran and FBR for their unwise decisions and laws.
He warned that unless the government and the FBR shun their anti-business policies, then they will not only face great resistance but will also prove detrimental to the country’s economy.
Steel millers protest
Even though the previous Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government had promised to grant residents of the erstwhile federally administered tribal areas (Fata) an amnesty from taxes for a certain period of time.
But with the beginning of the new fiscal year, they complained that the government had sent them tax notices in contravention of that agreement.
As a result, steel mill owners said that more than 35 steel mills and other industries are being forced to shut down, rendering around 100,000 people associated with the industry in the Khyber tribal district as jobless.
Speaking with The Express Tribune on Sunday, Tribal Industry Association President Muhammad Aslam said that they had assured by officials of the FBR, the federal, and the provincial government along with other senior government officials their industry will be provided with legal cover for a tax exemption of for at least five years.
However, Aslam claimed that they had been deceived.
“We have only 35 steel mills and recycling units in the Bara Industrial Estate, which employs more than 100,000 workers in various industries, including tobacco,” Aslam said. Terming the government’s decision to collect taxes as ‘unfair’, he said that it has forced them to announce the closure of all factories in the newly-merged districts.
“[The industries] will remain closed until the decision [of the govt to impose taxes] is withdrawn,” the association chief stated.
“We have provided job opportunities to the youth of the tribal districts despite severe security and financial constraints in the newly-merged districts, the federal and provincial government should keep these points in mind and should term the industries as tax-free zones for five years,” he demanded.
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Aslam further claimed that they were helping the government earn a handsome amount of foreign exchange by exporting steels and various items to Afghanistan apart from serving the internal needs of the country.
But the taxes demanded by the government will also affect their exports. He urged the FBR, federal and provincial government to reconsider their decision of eliminating the status of the tax-free zone for industries in the newly-merged districts and provide investors with a legal cover of five years.
“We are not opposing the [government’s attempts at] widening the tax net in the newly-merged tribal districts, we been suffered due to the militancy and military operations and to compensate the Khyber district and other tribal areas, industries in these areas should be exempted [from tax] for five years,” Aslam demanded.
WITH ADDITIONAL INPUT FROM ABUZAR AFRIDI
Published in The Express Tribune, July 08th, 2019.
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