IN a bid to help create conducive environment for businesses to grow, Prime Minister Imran Khan, on Monday, announced abolition of registration requirement and inspection for over one hundred small businesses. He said the Government has decided to remove the need for licences for 102 businesses, making the process simpler for small business owners. The PM expressed concern over the complex licensing regime and said the requirement of licences for businesses of grocery, cloth and bakery were creating difficulties for the common man.
This is yet another concession that the Government has given to the trading community that has been militating against measures initiated by the authorities for documentation of the economy. Through a presidential ordinance issued last month, the government had cut the minimum income tax rate from 1.5% to 0.5% for traders having annual sales up to Rs.100 million. These traders are also not required to act as withholding agents under the income tax law. For registration as sales tax person, the threshold of annual electricity bill to qualify as a Tier-I retailer has been increased from Rs.600,000 to Rs.1.2 million which has excluded hundreds of thousands of retailers from the scope of registration. The Government introduced the condition of CNIC for retailers on purchases of Rs.50,000 or more but here again the condition has so far not been enforced at the instance of businessmen. All this means that the Government has retreated from his earlier stance and conceded a lot of ground to traders, therefore, the Prime Minister had a point when he demanded of them to pay their due taxes. The Government has offered maximum relief to traders and it is time they should also realize that the country cannot be run if all segments of the society do not pay their taxes honestly. We would also point out to the Government that relief is appreciable but growth of the economy requires some other complementary measures as well like substantial cut in interest rate, reduction of gas and electricity tariff, clearance of sales tax refund and tackling of unbridled inflation.
