MUZAFFARABAD, July 24: Azad Jammu and Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry (AJKCCI) has urged the AJK government to take immediate action against those Pakistani industrialists who had or were planning to wind up their units in Azad Kashmir after enjoying the exemption of different kind of taxes and duties for five years.

AJKCCI president Zulfiqar Abbasi said such industrialists were impediment to promotion of industrialization in Azad Kashmir and were also brining the liberated territory’s business community into disrepute by exploiting the facilities extended by the governments of Pakistan and Azad Kashmir.

Talking to Dawn from Mirpur by telephone on Wednesday, Mr Abbasi said with such immoral activities these opportunist elements had given birth to an impression in the federal government’s relevant agencies that Azad Kashmir was a hub of tax evaders.

“This approach is adversely affecting the genuine business community of Azad Kashmir which is sincere to the economic and industrial development of the area, pays full taxes and does not shift their units after the expiry of tax holiday,” he said.

For the very reason, he lamented, the Central Board of Revenue had withdrawn some existing facilities to the AJK based industries such as bonded warehouses, although the same existed elsewhere in the country.

The AJKCCI, Mr Abbasi said, had been trying its best to discourage the practice of packing up of industrial units from Azad Kashmir after benefiting tax exemption for five years. But, he maintained, a complete halt to this “unethical and illegal trend” could only be brought with effective and sincere steps by the government agencies.

He alleged that some officials of the AJK government and the AJK council were also on the back of the industrialists planning to shift their units from Azad Kashmir. These officials were allegedly out to provide “safe passage” to such industrialists to shift their machinery from Azad Kashmir, he added.

He pointed out that the AJK government was currently generating annual revenue of around Rs3,500 million in shape of excise duty, income tax and sales tax, and warned that these revenues would sharply decline, besides aggravating the unemployment problem in the state if the shifting or closing of industrial units was not stopped.

He said the reason cited for the shifting was lack of industrial incentives and facilities in Azad Kashmir, which was absolutely wrong, because the atmosphere and attitude was industry friendly apart from tax and other exemptions.

The AJKCCI chief suggested that instead of offering total remission from tax payments for five years, the government should charge little amount of taxes from the day one of the launching of any industry and gradually revise it upwards with the passage of time. He was of the view that this could help promote industrialization in the state and discourage the trend of shifting of the industries.

Mr Abbasi also demanded of the AJK government to constitute the much-required Industrial Feasibility Board so that appropriate policies could be framed in this regard.

He also took strong exception to the perpetual delay in establishment of dry port in Mirpur alleging that the “opportunist industrialists” were also behind this delaying because of vested interests.

The AJKCCI chief urged President Pervez Musharraf to direct the CBR and the AJK council to go by his approval and start necessary work for the establishment of dry port in Mirpur because it was imperative to boost industrialization in Azad Kashmir and stop tax evasion.