Staff Reporter
Islamabad
Economic miseries are fuelling protests by masses and the dissatisfied business community across the country which is a threat to stability, a business leader said Sunday. IMF dictation regarding tax collection have made life difficult for the masses facing record inflation and these steps are killing businesses which has agitated the anger of traders, said Shahid Rasheed Butt former President ICCI.
He said that the motive behind protests and strike is not political but purely economic as the disappointed business community is struggling to attract customers hit by a sliding rupee and inflation.
Shahid Rasheed Butt said that government is engaged in useless meetings with the traders and using threats which is fuelling agitation as a record number of businesses are facing bankruptcy. He said that tax measures by the IMF are not aligned with the ground realities while FBR harassment has created mistrust and prompted protests across the country.
Traders say that government want to burden them under documentation and taxation but it is least interested in improving business climate. The government wants to collect taxes like practiced in the developed nations but it is not ready to provide facilities given to taxpayers in European nations, he said.
The business leader noted that Pakistan’s economy is very different from that of the developed world, a large part of the economy is undocumented which can be registered through a gradual process while a sudden change is not possible.
He said that leading chambers of commerce have asked the traders to refrain from strikes but the trade bodies have rejected their call and they are taking critical decisions themselves. Pakistan has long suffered from a weak tax base, with only about one percent of the population filing income tax returns and key industrial sectors dominated by powerful lobbies that pay little or no tax, he said.
Butt said that rural nobility pays no tax while the government has a soft corner for industrial tax evaders but it is doing its best to squeeze small traders which is not acceptable. So far the government has refused to agree to the traders demands to abandon its tax plans which the traders seem undeterred, he said.
