Industrialists, traders hail federal budget

Staff Report

MULTAN: The district’s industrialists and traders have welcomed the 2004-05 budget, saying it will strengthen the economy and encourage business.

Multan Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Malik Asrar Ahmed Awan said the cut in import duty on machinery would “revolutionise” industry. “We will be able to meet the challenges of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) regime,” he said.

Khawaja Jalaluddin Roomi, former chairman of the All Pakistan Bedsheets and Upholstery Manufacturers Association, said, “It is a realistic budget which will help in industrialisation, expansion in housing projects and bringing about a green revolution.”

Khawaja Muhammad Fazil said reducing the import duty on 1300 to 1600cc cars would cut car prices.

Trade leaders Tariq Mehmood Malik, Malik Nazir Ahmed Awan, Ghazanfar Malik, Sultan Mehmood, Khawaja Muhammad Shafiq, Khalid Mehmood Qureshi and Akhtar Butt said it was an ideal budget which had provided relief to small traders by enhancing the ceiling for the sales tax from Rs 500,000 to Rs 5 million. They said the relief in power tariff was too small.

Opposition leader Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani was critical of the budget, saying it would not help the 80 million poor in Pakistan. He said the 15 percent pay raise for civil servants was not sufficient because the prices of essential commodities had increased by 200 percent.

Local Pakistan People’s Party leaders such as Habibullah Shakir and Khurshid Ahmed Khan and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leaders like Hafiz Iqbal Khakwani and Bilal Butt also criticised the budget. United PML leaders Farrukh Mukhtar Shaikh, Malik Shaukat Bosan and others praised the budget, saying it would alleviate the common man’s miseries. The All Pakistan Clerks Association also hailed the government’s decision to raise salaries by 15 percent, but the association said the relief should also be given to provincial government departments, autonomous bodies, district governments, corporations and industrial workers.

Business community welcomes federal budget: The business community in Gujrat welcomed the federal budget 2004-05, calling it public-friendly and tax-free and saying that steps had been taken for industrial progress.

Local industrialists and traders told Daily Times that they were satisfied with the federal budget, and that it was a harbinger of prosperity for industry and technology, as well as providing relief to the poor. Pakistan Electric Fan Manufacturers Association’s (PEFMA) former chairman Haji Mohammad Ilyas said that the government had approved industrialists’ longstanding demands in the federal budget and the decrease in Sales Tax on pig iron, coal, varnish and paints was a welcome sign, which would provide relief to the public. PEFMA Chairman Adnan Naseem Sethi said that the proposals included in the budget would benefit fan manufacturers and accelerate exports. Industrialist Alhaj Mohammad Ayub said that the decision to decrease customs duty to five percent was judicious and the government’s policies would empower the economy. He said that a 15 percent ‘mehangai allowance’ would be a relief for the government employees. Another former chairman of PEFMA, Sheikh Khawer Rafiq said that the decrease in different taxes was a positive decision which would eliminate the practice of refunds.

He said that the government’s policies were beneficial for the industry. Industrialist Mirza Imtiaz Ahmed said that the industrial sector was indebted to Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz for taking steps to promote the fan industry. He said that a decrease in electricity rates would benefit industrialists. He also welcomed the government’s decision to promote the IT industry.

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