May 6, 2003	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 3, 1424

KARACHI, May 5: The Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (Unisame) has asked the ministry of finance (MoF) to enhance the tax exemption limit from Rs80,000 to Rs150,000 for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as well as salaried class.

In a communication to the MoF, the Unisame has pointed out that because of rapidly increasing cost of living it has become almost impossible to survive for a person earning below this amount.

Presently, the union maintained, a major portion of an individual salary goes to payment of utility bills and rent and at the end of the day he cannot even have one square meal a day.

Therefore, a person earning below Rs10,000 per month is being subjected to injustice because he is paying tax on every item he is purchasing be it a shirt or a shoe and in addition, if liable, he has to pay income tax.

The representative body of small and medium enterprises has also urged the MoF to spare the lower middle income group from being further taxed and should provide immediate relief.

Consequently, Unisame has appealed to the finance minister to ensure that no further taxes are imposed on medicines, food items, utility bills and items of daily necessities.

It has also asked for tax exemptions for new entrepreneurs and for import substitution items to enable the SMEs to compete with foreign goods.