President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF), President All Karachi Industrial Alliance (AKIA), Senior Vice Chairman of the Businessmen Panel of FPCCI and former provincial minister, Mian Zahid Hussain on Monday said rampant tax evasion is resulting in poverty, unemployment and illiteracy in the country. Loans and grants can never be a substitute to the economic activity which is imperative for the national development, he said.

Mian Zahid Hussain said that regressive taxation regime introduced by many countries has killed the economy activity keeping the dependent on loans and charity.

Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that no amount of borrowing or charity could help a country, as economic activity is the only solution to the problems.

The former minister noted that reduced economic activity triggers poverty, illiteracy and child labour putting future of the country at stake.

He said that our economic situation is worst in South Asia; inflation is highest in the region which increasing taxes are opposing economic progress. Giving an example, he said that many African nations have imposed thirty percent income tax,  twenty percent value added tax and 45 to 50 percent duties on imports which has made local and foreign investments impossible despite very cheap labour.

Mian Zahid Hussain noted that majority of African and other poor nations have imposed these taxes to please institutions like IMF, which has reduced their chance of development to zero.

Policies like those that difficult rules and regulations in the name of reforms, penalising masses to improve GDP and choosing economic depression have failed in many countries therefore we should not repeat them, he opined.