That catalysts increase the rates (more precisely, the rate constants) of the forward and reverse reactions by the SAME amount is an absurd ad hoc fabrication whose only function is to save the second law of thermodynamics:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/higher...um/revision/2/
"A catalyst reduces the time taken to reach equilibrium, but does not change the position of the equilibrium. This is because the catalyst increases the rates of the forward and reverse reactions by the same amount."

https://www.boundless.com/chemistry/...lyst-447-3459/
"In the presence of a catalyst, both the forward and reverse reaction rates will speed up equally, thereby allowing the system to reach equilibrium faster. However, it is very important to keep in mind that the addition of a catalyst has no effect whatsoever on the final equilibrium position of the reaction. It simply gets it there faster. [...] To reiterate, catalysts do not affect the equilibrium state of a reaction. In the presence of a catalyst, the same amounts of reactants and products will be present at equilibrium as there would be in the uncatalyzed reaction. To state this in chemical terms, catalysts affect the kinetics, but not the thermodynamics, of a reaction. If the addition of catalysts could possibly alter the equilibrium state of the reaction, this would violate the second rule of thermodynamics...."

That is, if the catalyst accelerates the forward reaction (increases its rate constant) by a factor of, say, 8437, it must accelerate the backward reaction by a factor of 8437 as well - not more, not less. There can be nothing more idiotic than that. Catalysts increase the rate constants of the forward and reverse reactions by DIFFERENT amounts (one of the constants may not be increased at all) - a fact which, in principle, converts systems harboring catalyzed reactions into perpetual-motion machines of the second kind:

http://microver.se/sse-pdf/edgescience_24.pdf
"A small, closed, high temperature cavity contained two metal catalysts (rhenium and tungsten), which were known to dissociate molecular hydrogen (H2) to different degrees (Figure 1). (Rhenium dissociates hydrogen molecules into atoms better than tungsten does; conversely, tungsten recombines hydrogen atoms back into hydrogen molecules better than rhenium.) Because the dissociation reaction (H2 - 2H) is endothermic (absorbs heat), and the recombination reaction (2H - H2) is exothermic (liberates heat), when hydrogen was introduced into the cavity, the rhenium surfaces cooled (up to more than 125 K) relative to the tungsten (Figure 2). Because the hydrogen-metal reactions were ongoing in the sealed cavity, the rhenium stayed cooler than the tungsten indefinitely. This permanent temperature difference - this steady-state nonequilibrium - is expressly forbidden by the second law, not just because the system won’t settle down to a single-temperature equilibrium, but because this steady-state temperature difference can, in principle, be used to drive a heat engine (or produce electricity) solely by converting heat back into work, which is a violation of one of the most fundamental statements of the second law (Kelvin-Planck formulation)."

Pentcho Valev