President Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI) Agha Shahab Ahmed Khan has requested Chief Minister Sindh to devise some kind of an effective mechanism for providing immediate relief to the perturbed businessmen and industrialists by directing Sindh Revenue Board (SRB) to discontinue collection of all types of taxes including Services Tax and other levies.
The same has been done by the Punjab Government as Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar recently waived off provincial taxes of Rs18 billion in the wake of prevailing economic situation due to coronavirus, Agha Shahab mentioned in a letter sent to Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah.
The President KCCI underscored that SRB must stop collecting taxes during the next four to six months and these should only resume when the situation improves after the said period. He said that the business & industrial community, which is already providing cash and food to the needy Karachiites on humanitarian grounds, would try its best to somehow sustain the entire burden of wages and salaries payable for this month only but they will not be able to do so next month.
Hence, a Special Relief Package has to be announced in which the entire cost of salaries/ wages must be borne by the government which would certainly provide relief to industries but if the government is not in a position to do so, a mechanism has to be adopted for a period of at least two to three months in which the aggregate amount of salaries payable by each and every industry should be fragmented into three equal portions, of which the first portion should be paid by the relevant industrialist and second portion should be contributed by the government while the last portion has to be borne by the laborers.
“This Special Relief Package is the need of the hour which would certainly enable the private sector to deal with this uncalled for stress on their balance sheets, avoid lay-offs and rescue many industrial units from becoming sick or bankrupt”, he added.
