K-P chamber unhappy with federal budget

Says document lacks vision; is merely ‘creative accounting’.


Our Correspondent June 06, 2012

PESHAWAR: Expressing reservations over the Federal Budget 2012-13, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KPCCI) has termed the budget a document with ‘no growth and no vision, but merely creative accounting’.

“The government has attempted through the budget to create bad blood between manufacturers and whole sellers and retailers by making the former ‘withholding tax agents’,” Afnan Aziz, president KPCCI, said on Tuesday during a press conference.

“The government wants to hide behind manufacturers and wants to make the latter work for it without pay in order to bring unregistered businesses in the tax net,” Aziz said. He complained that it was the government’s job to book unregistered persons, not manufacturers’.

Aziz repeatedly stressed that the agriculture sector accounts for 21% of the GDP, but the sector is currently not paying any tax at all. “If the government is serious, the agriculture sector should be brought in the tax net,” Aziz demanded.

He questioned the government’s ambitious revenue target of Rs2.381 trillion set for fiscal 2012-13, while commenting that the lower current target of Rs 1.952 trillion could not be achieved despite efforts.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 6th, 2012.

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