KARACHI: More and more Pakistanis are planning to shift their businesses to the Gulf countries as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government seeks to give policing powers to tax collectors, a traders’ representative said on Thursday, describing the move as being “worse than law of the jungle.”
The government this month introduced a new legal provision in the form of Section 37AA of the Sales Tax Act, 1990 that allows officers of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to make arrests in case of a “tax fraud or any other offense warranting prosecution.”
The move has sparked protests by the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), the country’s largest body of traders and industrialists, in Karachi which the KCCI members say could be expanded to the whole country, if the government did not withdraw the provision decision.
In an interview with Arab News, KCCI President Muhammad Jawed Bilwani said investors were already deserting Pakistan for Gulf countries, Vietnam, South Korea, US, African and Central Asian regions and even Afghanistan, and more people plan on joining them after the latest move.
“Most of the people have shifted to the UAE (United Arab Emirates) and Gulf countries where they say the tax rate and electric tariffs have been fixed for 10 years,” the KCCI president said.
