KARACHI: The Pakistan Business Council (PBC) has pointed out three measures introduced in Finance Act 2016 which could impact the competitiveness of businesses in the near, medium and long term.
In a letter to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, PBC Chief Executive Ehsan Malik said these measures include changes in group taxation which remove the incentives to consolidate and scale up for global competitiveness.
Another measure is the denial of provincial input sales tax on services triggered by an accounting dispute between the federation and the federating units.
Moreover, charging up to three times higher income tax on remittances from services exports as compared to the exports of goods could act as a dampener to the development of Pakistan’s service sector and the broadening of exports.
He urged the premier to repeal the above measures and allow local companies to grow and create jobs.
Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2016