President Business Forum of Punjab (BFP) Ibrahim Qureshi said Friday that fiscal deficit, increasing inflation, energy crisis and debt servicing would be the prime challenges to tackle with for the government in upcoming budget 2012-13. He said there a need of catering the long term and short term energy needs of the country. The current energy mix in Pakistan is not sustainable, as it is relying heavily on oil consumption he said and added that the costly energy has multiplied the cost of production making hard for industry to compete with globally in a highly uncompetitive interest rate regime. President BFP suggested that the government should make mandatory for all legal entities including individuals, association of persons, corporate and NGOs/NPOs to file annual tax returns with separate claim for exemption, if available to any segment as per law.
According to him, the budget-making should not merely be an accounting exercise and instead it should be focused on growth of human capital through planning framework for socio-economic development than fiscal in the country. He said Pakistan has no debt sustainability strategy and over 30 percent of the current account expenditure is spent on interest payment. Ibrahim said the government should also look for targeted subsidies to benefit the poor, as that only five percent of subsidies at present are actually targeted at the poor. He also proposed various recommendations for forthcoming budget such as practicing minimum tax regime, reduction in corporate tax, budget safeguards for industry after opening up of trade with India, reforms in water and energy sector and taxation on remittances. President BFP further stressed the need for consistency in economic policies and putting focus on promoting entrepreneurship in coming budget.
