SIALKOT: Leading industrialists and traders have strongly criticized the federal budget, calling it “unsatisfactory” and “disappointing” following the budget speech by Federal Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb and the release of budget documents.
Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) President Ehtesham Jilani said that after consultation with all chambers, the business community has collectively rejected the federal budget.
He noted that major chambers, including those from Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad, and Gujrat, as well as the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), had jointly demanded the restoration of the fixed tax regime, but their request was not accepted.
According to Jilani, while local shopkeepers have been granted relief under a fixed tax system, exporters have been left out. He said the new budget fails to facilitate exporters and instead pushes them back into excessive Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) procedures.
He further argued that abolishing the fixed tax regime would not increase revenue collection but instead could reduce government earnings.
Jilani added that competing countries such as India, Bangladesh, and Vietnam are making business easier, while Pakistan is increasing production costs and operational difficulties for exporters.
Despite strong criticism, he also acknowledged some positive measures in the budget, including the abolition of super tax on exporters and a reduction in the refinancing rate to 4.5 percent.
However, he stressed that since nearly 90 percent of Sialkot’s industry consists of SMEs, the benefit of removing super tax would largely go to a limited number of large exporters.
He also highlighted that despite clear instructions from the Prime Minister, export refunds worth around 8 billion rupees for Sialkot exporters have yet to be cleared.
