Pakistan: Imran Khan to protest over 'super tax' imposed by Shehbaz govt

Islamabad [Pakistan], June 26 : Opposing the fiscal budget 2022-23 passed by the Shehbaz Sharif-led Pakistan government, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chief Imran Khan announced to hold a protest meeting on July 2 at the Parade Ground, Islamabad, against the 'super tax' imposed by the government.
Through a video link from his Bani Gala residence, he said "The nation should be clear that there was no preparation on the rulers' part to fix the economy, reduce prices," emphasising that the government had only one thing in their mind as to how to take another 'NRO' as the first 'NRO' was taken from Musharraf.
Imran Khan will be holding a protest meeting on July 2 at the Parade Ground, Islamabad, against the government and its policies to showcase his discontentment over the super tax. According to him it would increase pressure on industries and add to unemployment, The News International reported.
High net worth individuals will also be subject to a "poverty alleviation tax".
Those whose annual income exceeds Rs150 million will be subject to 1pc tax; for Rs200 million, 2pc; Rs250 million, 3pc; and Rs300 million will be taxed 4pc of their income.
Due to super tax, the corporate tax would go up to 39 per cent while India and Bangladesh had 25 per cent that meant that this tax would make the things costlier, Imran said, pointing out that the cost of making things would be expensive and this would have the biggest impact on employment amid the already existing economic crisis.
Raising concerns over difficulties faced by salaried class, Imran Khan said load-shedding would affect farmers and Pakistan's production as diesel is expensive, targetting the Sharif government for not taking important measures to tackle the same.
The PTI chairman said: "The taxation will force people to evade taxes while we collected record taxes and had found out the mortgage of people through artificial intelligence. We had planned how to bring them into the tax net and increase the tax net. We had brought in a track and trace system to end sales tax evasion and had selected 20 industries and started track and trace system on 3 and planned to go to the entire 20."
The PTI chief also criticized the government for NAB law amendments and said that "we have gone to the Supreme Court of Pakistan to challenge the amendments they have made to the NAB Act and I have full faith in our judiciary" alleging the incumbent government for the destruction of the country.
NAB had recovered Rs 280 billion before 2018 and then made recoveries worth Rs 480 billion in the PTI government. The News International said, quoting Imran Khan as saying.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has previously lambasted the recent amendments made by the incumbent government of Shehbaz Sharif and called for throwing rulers in jail for 'shamelessly' passing National Accountability Bureau (NAB) laws.
He also announced approaching the Supreme Court against the NAB amendments.
Khan also bashed the leaders of the two big political parties, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) would be "saved" after the changes -- said the government amended section 14 of the law, which now states that a person will only be held accountable for the "money left in the fake accounts (when a person is arrested)".
The PTI chairman said under the current tax laws, a person has to provide the trail of his money as the onus lies on them, not the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).