PTI Secretary General, Asad Umar, said “Super Tax will rattle the economy” on Friday and this imposing of “super tax” on large-scale industries would “rattle the economy”, increase the rate of unemployment and inflation, raise the amount of imports and push Pakistan further into the economic crisis.
“This is a huge blow to the growing industries,” he said at a press conference in Islamabad.
Addressing the nation, Prime Minister, Shahbaz Sharif announced a 10 per cent tax on sectors including sugar, oil and gas, cement, steel, airlines, fertilizers, LNG terminals, textile, banking, automobile, cigarettes, beverages, and chemicals.
In his speech, PM Shahbaz had said the decision was taken to protect and support the poor segments from backbreaking inflation.
High-net-worth individuals will also be concerned to a “poverty alleviation tax”. Those whose annual income exceeds Rs150 million will be subject to 1% tax; 2% for Rs200 million; 3% for Rs250 million; and Rs300 million will be taxed 4% out of their income.
The new measures gave rise to a tumble in the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) which crashed after the benchmark, KSE-100 Index lost more than 2,000 points, or 4.8%, in the morning session.
PTI, which was the largest party in the National Assembly before its members resigned all at once from the Lower House in April, disagreed with the premier’s assessment, claiming that the measures would instead further burden the public in the form of higher prices.
In his presser today, Umar said: “This [super tax] is an attack on those sectors of the economy that have the potential of growth […] that can increase production and livelihood […] and this is the reason why the market lost 2,000 points during Shahbaz Sharif’s speech.
“It is obvious how dangerous and fatal the budget is for the economy,” the former federal minister indicator.
“For the past 20 years,” he continued, “Pakistan had a policy of gradually decreasing taxes on industries. But they have ruined it all now.”
He further added that “Even now, despite increasing prices of every commodity — diesel, petrol, gas, and food items — the PM said that the deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will only be signed if the fund doesn’t make more demands.”
“This is a joke with the public,” he said.
“And then you ask people to be thankful? Mian sahib, you had a choice between protecting the public and hiding your corruption and you have chosen the latter,” the former minister added.
He also claimed that the government didn’t care about the public because it knew the public never chose it. “All they care about are the people who brought them. How will America be happy? Will it be happy by recognizing Israel? By extending ties with India or by giving bases [to the US]?”
Meanwhile, countering the prime minister’s remarks on PTI leading the country towards a default, Umar said that when the Imran-led government was “ousted”, the foreign exchange reserves in the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) were $16.4 billion.
“In the last three months, they have come down exactly by half. So, PM sahib, it was you who has driven the country to default, not us.”
Umar further said that the PML-N government had presented the “real budget today”.
He stated that according to the Constitution, when the budget was presented, the Senate had a time of 14 days to debate on it and present its observations and reservations. “But they named the budget presented on July 11 provisional.
“Then they let 14 days pass and made an announcement today in which taxes of billions of rupees were imposed. This is a violation of the Senate’s constitutional rights,” Umar said.
He, subsequently, demanded that since the budget was finalized today, the Senate should be given 14 days from today onwards to discuss it. “If this doesn’t happen then the budget will become unconstitutional and can be challenged in the courts.”
Meanwhile, former federal minister and PTI leader Hammad Azhar said that the super tax meant “taxing the already taxed even more”, adding that it would “squeeze the formal sector of the economy”.
“The economy is nosediving and such a measure at this time will reverse the industrialization momentum that PTI generated,” he pointed out.
Azhar highlighted that the industry was already facing crippling costs due to rising prices of commodities and energy. “This super tax will be priced in their balance sheets and passed on to the customers in many cases. Means even higher prices for the public.”
He also said that 0.63pc of taxpayers pay 67pc of all income tax collected in the country.
“Total Rs60bn realistically expected from the super tax. Out of this, Rs46bn will come from banks. Total tax collection target is Rs7,400bn that will be met by inflation alone. So for a gimmick (like the imports ban), they heavily taxed the already taxed formal sector,” he said.
Former information minister Fawad Chaudhry said that the PSX meltdown showed the amount of confidence the nation had in the Shehbaz-led government.
“The government’s economic policies are making Pakistan bankrupt. Getting rid of this government is in Pakistan’s best interest,” he said.
Meanwhile, ex-finance minister Shaukat Tarin simply said that the market didn’t believe in the PML-N government anymore.
