KARACHI: Expressing serious concerns over 25 per cent disallowance of sales promotion and advertisement expenses, as proposed in the new budget, the media industry has said that consequences of decline in their businesses would mean unemployment due to expected closure of small channels and newspapers, and its eventual negative impact on the community.

The All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) and Pakistan Broadcasters Association (PBA) wrote separate letters to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb seeking withdrawal of the proposed amendment.

The APNS said, “It is pertinent to note that our effective tax is already the highest in the region and this bar on claiming sales & promotion and advertisement will add fuel to the fire and make us further less attractive, from a foreign direct investment perspective.”

The PBA in its letter said that the media industry is already facing “severe hardship” due to contraction of documented economy, lack of innovation and overall lacklustre economic growth.

It said that “those who stayed with us for last many decades should not be punished, for short term gains by increasing their cost of doing business and adopting knee jerk measures to collect revenue, which is not sustainable and in the longer run will impact the documented economy”.

Published in Dawn, June 23rd, 2024