Chairman All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) Syed Ali Ahsan praised the Finance Supplementary (Second Amendment) Bill, 2019 (Mini Budget) for providing relief to the manufacturers and envisioning export-led and investment-oriented economic growth. It is expected that this package would translate into growth-led revenue generation to overcome the revenue and current account deficit of the country. He said that this bill would provide clarity to investors, traders and manufacturers to augment business activity. He praised both Prime Minister Imran Khan and Federal Finance Minister Asad Umar and thanked both of them for introducing visionary steps to encourage investment and industrialization in the county.
The announcement of investment measures for Greenfield projects and for the BMR is appreciable. However, he urged the finance minister to also announce eligibility of LTFF to indirect exports. A sizeable investment in greenfield and BMR projects can be immediately realized on this announcement as part of the package, He has further proposed to announce a long term textile policy and ensure full implementation of the policy to achieve set targets.
Discrimination in tax collection was pointed out according to which the share of manufacturing sector in GDP is 13 percent whereas the tax collection from it is about 60 percent. Syed emphasized the fact that the time has come that contribution of tax be spread evenly on all sectors contributing to GDP.
