KARACHI: The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) has announced that it will present its highly anticipated ‘shadow budget’ for the fiscal year 2026–27 next week, comprising pro-business and pro-growth policy recommendations.
FPCCI President Atif Ikram Sheikh said the apex trade body’s alternative fiscal document is intended to provide the federal government with a pragmatic, growth-oriented and business-friendly macroeconomic framework, focused on broadening the tax base rather than placing additional financial strain on the compliant, documented and law-abiding business community. He also emphasised the need to simplify the taxation system.
Sheikh highlighted the urgent need for a paradigm shift in the country’s economic planning, noting that reliance on an ever-shrinking pool of compliant taxpayers is unsustainable and detrimental to industrial growth. He added that the FPCCI’s shadow budget would not merely critique the current system, but would present a meticulously researched alternative fiscal blueprint.
The FPCCI chief said the proposals would demonstrate how the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) can achieve its revenue targets by bringing the untaxed economy into the tax net, rather than forcing closures in the manufacturing and export sectors. He added that trade and industry should be facilitated and incentivised.
Senior Vice President Saquib Fayyaz Magoon elaborated on the structural reforms to be addressed in the document. He said the documented business community is currently under pressure from high corporate taxes, heavy compliance costs and erratic policy shifts that discourage documentation.
Magoon said the proposals would outline actionable measures to reduce and rationalise tax rates, and to streamline technical and procedural inefficiencies in the system. He added that the FPCCI aims to provide the Ministry of Finance with a clear strategy to curb capital flight and reverse industrial decline through facilitative, consultative and pro-growth macroeconomic policies.
