Lahore: “The increase in customs duty on more than 5,000 items and in regulatory duty of over 900 items should have been levied on luxury items and not on imported raw materials and capital goods which are not produced locally”. This was said by Regional Chairman and Vice President of Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), Ch. ArfanYousaf in his reaction to the amended Finance Bill 2018 for remaining months of the financial year, He urged that corrective measures may be taken against the smuggling of those items to safeguard the local industry against the influx of smuggled items. He said that the massive increase in the gas tariff would hurt the exports as it would the jack-up cost of doing business manifold and expel the Pakistani products from the international export market. Such anti-business measures would hamper the growth of the manufacturing sector, he added. He termed it a moderate budget as it would generate additional revenue for the cash-starved country for economic recovery.
He argued that the reduction in public sector development programme from Rs725 billion to Rs 475 billion would hurt the development of infrastructure projects, a pre-requisite of industrialization. In his mixed reaction, he also appreciated the government moves to ensure uninterrupted supply of fertilizer to the farmers at an affordable rate for which a subsidy of Rs 6 to 7 billion has also been approved.
Arfan hailed the decision of the government to absorb the impact increase in petroleum levy from Rs185 billion to Rs300 billion and not passing the same to the masses.
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