KARACHI: President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF), President All Karachi Industrial Alliance (AKIA), Senior Vice Chairman of the Businessmen Panel of FPCCI and former provincial minister, Mian Zahid Hussain has said that rampant tax evasion is resulting in poverty, unemployment and illiteracy in the country.
Talking to business community here on Monday, Mian Zahid Hussain said that loans and grants can never be a substitute to the economic activity which is imperative for the national development.
Regressive taxation regime introduced by many countries has killed the economy activity keeping the dependent on loans and charity, he added.
The veteran business leader said that no amount of borrowing or charity can help a country as economic activity is the only solution to the problems.
Reduced economic activity triggers poverty, illiteracy and child labour putting future of the country at stake, the former minister noted.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that our economic situation is worst in South Asia, inflation is highest in the region which increasing taxes are opposing economic progress.
Giving an example, he said that many African nations have imposed thirty percent income tax, twenty percent value added tax and 45 to 50 percent duties on imports which has made local and foreign investments impossible despite very cheap labour.
Mian Zahid Hussain noted that majority of African and other poor nations have imposed these taxes to please institutions like IMF which has reduced their chance of development to zero.
Policies like difficult rules and regulations in the name of reforms, penalising masses to improve GDP and choosing economic depression have failed in many countries therefore we should not repeat them, he opined.
The veteran business leader said that the policymakers must learn a lesson from other countries because our economy is still left with some energy which is not favoured by some influential countries.(INP/SB)
