LAHORE– United Business Group (UBG) Wednesday jointly putting forward a set of 40 pre-budget proposals demanded the government for tax-free federal budget 2020-21 besides seeking a special package of incentives to accelerate the pace of economic activities in wake of the pandemic of coronavirus.
Unfolding the salient features of proposals, UBG Central Chairman Iftikhar Ali Malik after chairing a high-level meeting of the core committee through video conference said UBG suggested the government to revamp the taxation system on modern line to accommodate the business community.
“The objectives of budget proposals are revamping taxation system, documentation of economy, employment generation through industrialization, promoting a responsive and equitable taxation system, infrastructure development and trickledown effect of the fiscal space to the grass-root level,” adding he said the government should reduce sales tax rate gradually to a single digit, to abolish all duty and taxes on the imports of all machinery, to reduce further tax on an unregistered person from three percent to one percent and imposition of taxes on final goods.
Iftikhar Malik also proposed that customs duties on all raw materials should be low or zero. The government must eliminate regulatory duties and additional customs duty on raw materials so that the local industry could compete with the smuggled items and mitigate the effect of low tariff-free trade agreements.
UBG patron in Chief SM Muneer, Khalid Tawab, Zubair Tufail, Feroze, Mian Muhammad Adress, Rehmat Ullah Javed, Malik Sohail Hussain, Hameed Akhtar Chada, Ilyas Bilour and Daroo Khan Achakzai besides Muslim Khan Binoveri and other participated in the live video conference.
He further said they complied with the proposals after seeking complete feedback from all business sectors to meet the challenges being faced by trade and industry due to the outbreak of COVID-19, as its severe and adverse impacts on various aspects of Pakistan’s economy were quite discernible. “These impacts might lead to negative growth rate, deterioration in current and fiscal balance, disruption in the supply chain, and increased unemployment, etc,” he added.
Appreciating Prime Minister Imran Khan for his dynamic leadership and clear vision at the time of coronavirus outbreak, he suggested the government to take strong measures to mitigate the sufferings of our people and give them hope, provide them cash, food and recreate employment opportunities for them.
Iftikhar Malik also said the government should follow the same spirit of austerity measures as is shown in the previous budget so that the expenditures were made in a way that the public money was not wasted. “He said that it was a big economic principle that through government expenditures money goes in the hands of people who generate economic activities and create jobs, which helped in tackling recession,” he pointed out.
He said that the government had to focus on enhancing business relations with other countries as no country in the current era could progress on its own. He also underlined the need for enhancing exports, reducing imports, and also giving incentives to the expatriate Pakistanis to invest in their homeland and open their business here.
Stressing the need for striking a balance between health and economic activities, he said the government had to protect people from COVID-19’s effects and at the same time it had to save the country’s economy–PRESS RELEASE
