Additional taxes will cripple industrial sector: Business leader

ISLAMABAD: Chairman of National Business Group Pakistan, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum, and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussainon Friday said imposing a five percent tax on the productive sector will cripple it. Many factories will close, production will be reduced and unemployment will increase if taxes are increased on the sector which is already paying three times more taxes. Mian Zahid Hussain said that the industrial sector cannot bear the burden of more taxes therefore instead of targeting the industry, tax should be imposed on those sectors which are not paying tax or paying nominal tax. Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that the government never imposed adequate taxes on agriculture, banks, brokers, property, transport and other non-productive sectors to increase its income, which is surprising because it causes a loss of over 75 billion rupees.-NNI