PESHAWAR: The business community of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has rejected new taxes in the 2023-24 federal budget and warned if those taxes aren’t withdrawn immediately, it will organise street protests across the province.

In a statement issued here on Monday, acting president of the Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry Ijaz Khan Afridi said that new taxes imposed to secure loans from the International Monetary Fund threatened the economy, businesses, and industry.

“New taxes will trigger a storm of inflation in the country. They will not only hit the business community hard but it will badly affect the people from other walks of walks as well,” he said.

Mr Afridi urged the government to withdraw those taxes in the “best interest” of the economy, commerce and industry.

He warned that the tax move meant to please the international lender won’t benefit the economy and instead, it would create more problems for the country.

Fears govt move will deepen economic crisis

“We [SCCI] along with businesspersons and traders will agitate if the government doesn’t withdraw additional taxes imposed through the new budget,” he said.

The chamber leader said that the government’s tax move would push the economy into further crisis.

He said that the business community had already suffered a lot due to the unfriendly policies of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s administration.

Mr Afridi said that it was completely unjust to impose Rs415 billion on the inflation-hit people on the orders of the IMF.

“New taxes are unacceptable to the business community, so the SCCI rejects them altogether,” he said.

The SCCI president complained that diesel, power and gas tariffs and prices of essential commodities surged after the government took the massive taxation move, which would add to the misery of the people, including the business community.

He rejected a record 22 per cent hike in policy rate by the State Bank of Pakistan and said that the move would cause negative impacts for trade and commercial and industrial activities.

Mr Afridi criticised the federal government over “failure” to contain the economic slide, especially inflation, despite an unprecedented increase in interest rate.

He urged the government to take “concrete” steps to revive the ailing economy and promote commercial and industrial activities in the country instead of paralysing them.

The SCCI chief demanded the promotion of commerce and industry in the country to stabilise and strengthen the economy and warned if that didn’t happen, then the economic crisis would deepen.

Published in Dawn, July 4th, 2023