UBG lauds cooperative attitude of PM’s aide, other officials

Lahore: The United Business Group (UBG) of FPCCI on Saturday lauded the cooperative attitude of Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Revenue Haroon Akhtar Khan, Chairman FBR and other officials regarding resolution of the problems of business community.

The top officials are sympathetically listening to the reservations of the business community regarding budget anomalies and we are hopeful that we would get some relaxations before the approval of the federal budget, said Secretary General of UBG and chairman FBR committee of FPCCI, Zubair Tufail.

He said this while briefing business community in the FPCCI Capital office. Central Spokesman of UBG Gulzar Feroz, Shakil Dhingra and Malik Sohail were also present on the occasion.

Zubair Tufail said that we have pinned high hopes on the government functionaries so that they can fix anomalies well in time which will improve the confidence of the business community.

He informed that government has increased taxes on plastic industry and steel billet while one rupee per kg Federal Excise Duty (FED) has been slapped on the cement which can hurt housing sector.

Similarly, commercial importers are not very happy with the new taxation decisions which has put them on disadvantage for which we are in talks with the concerned officials, he informed.

He said that rice industry is second largest export earning sector which deserves to be given the status of zero-rated industry.

These taxes will be detrimental for the development of industries and businesses as the government should focus on widening tax base rather than imposing further taxes on existing, he demanded.

Five important export-oriented sectors have been given status of zero-rated but rice industry is not included in the list of zero-rated sector while import of raw material for the limping leather industry should be declared free of all taxes and duties so that this sector can regain its position in the international market, said Zubair Tufail.