Real estate, stock exchanges be taxed: FPCCI

[Naveed Yaseen]

KARACHI: Acting President of Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), Usman Zakaria, has proposed to the government to tax the real estate sector and stock exchanges, but to provide relief to small farmers by excluding them from the tax net.

At a press conference held to announce budget proposals on Wednesday, Zakaria said plant machinery and their spare parts should have zero-rated duty on them whereas new plants and industrial production that is expected to commence from December 2012 should be provided tax relief for next five years.

He suggested to the government should do away with withholding tax on industrial sector’s utility bills and demanded that all sales tax forms to be made uniform and reduced down to 10 per cent. Zakaria further asked the government to exempt people earning salaries up to Rs250,000 from income tax due to high inflation in the country whilst demanding income tax be reduced by 5 per cent for earners above the stated mark.

He also demanded higher taxes should be introduced in the upcoming budget for sectors that were earning high profits to cover revenue targets of the government.

Zakaria added that workers health insurance policy should be introduced by all sectors. He further said that the cost of production, high utility charges, load-shedding should be reduced and requested the government to pay heed to the proposals for the better economy as he said that last year 90 per cent of their proposals had been neglected.

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