Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Founder President of Islamabad Women’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IWCCI) Samina Fazil has demanded a special tax exemption scheme for the businesswomen to help them fight the adverse economic impact of coronavirus and high inflation.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, she said businesswomen are mostly linked to services sector and their business have been ruined by the pandemic and lockdowns therefore they deserve such a scheme for two years.
Samina Fazil said that last year there was no business but women entrepreneurs will have to pay to accountants and lawyers to file income tax returns by the next month which should be waived to reduce their financial burden.
Women entrepreneurs are facing many complex challenges like saving their businesses from bankruptcy while a range of different barriers are preventing their businesses from thriving, she added.
The IWCCI President said that women have long been facing problems like a lack of access to finance, uncertainty, inflation, instability, and prejudice but the impact of the pandemic was the greatest challenge they had ever faced.
The indifferent attitude of policymakers poses a very real threat for women entrepreneurs who rely on the income generated by their businesses as many of their ventures have bankrupted while many are at risk of closure.
Samina Fazil said that women entrepreneurs deserve financial compensation for loss of income caused by the pandemic but their demands are falling on deaf ears.
Women business owners must be enabled with equal access to the knowledge, skills, and resources more readily available to men to ensure economic uplift societies desperately need post-pandemic.
According to a recent study, five trillion dollars could be added to the global economy if the gender gap in entrepreneurship is closed therefore it must be realized that the untapped potential of women entrepreneurs could be the key to restoring economies all over the world reducing poverty and illiteracy, she said.
