Budget
& Business
By Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd.)
Rawalpindi, Pakistan
Preparations for
the fiscal budget 2006-2007 are afoot and as usual
facts and figures will be kept secret from the
public till the last moment. Soon the CBR offices
will be placed out-of-bounds for all visitors
and its employees ‘quarantined’ to
deny them any contact with the outside world lest
they leak any vital information. Trade and import
policies will also be revised which when announced
suddenly will come as a bomb shell to the unwary
businessman who would have worked out his imports
and exports based upon the previous year’s
policies. All trade in the pipe line would suffer
one way or the other.
Such a practice offers the CBR and the government
with an ideal opportunity to oblige their favourites
in the business community by letting them in on
some of the secrets before hand. Others try their
utmost with fair and unfair means to get an inkling
of the coming taxes and levies. This not only
opens doors to corruption. Remember, a few years
ago the knowledgeable withdrawing their pounds
and dollars from the banks late in the night hours
before NS froze all FE accounts in the country?
The unscrupulous hoarders and traders make items
of daily use disappear from the market only to
reappear on the shelves with increased prices,
thus becoming richer by the millions overnight.
It is, therefore, suggested that the government
should announce its budget and trade policies
six months ahead, say on July 1st each year to
be implemented with effect from January 1st of
the following year. This will give enough time
to all to plan their business activities. At the
same time no hoarder will hoard the goods for
six months and the public, the media and the assemblies
will have plenty of time to discuss the nitty-gritty
of the budget and trade policies threadbare to
the satisfaction of all. No business in the pipeline
will suffer and the businessmen will be able to
plan properly what to import and how and when.
This scheme of affairs is nothing new either and
is being practiced by a few countries –
for example South Korea. But will the CBR or the
government kill a goose laying the golden eggs?
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