May 13, 2016
President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF), President AKIA, Senior Vice Chairman of the Businessmen Panel of FPCCI and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Friday said export sector is lacking real reforms which is a reason behind dismal performance.
Government has set export target at 35 billion dollars in the recent trade policy but reforms haven’t been initiated which has resulted in double-digit fall in exports which will result in foreign loans, he said.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that trade deficit ballooned to 19 billion dollars in the first ten months of the current fiscal which was 17.9 billion dollars a year ago.
Moreover, imports continue to increase contributing to the trade deficit, he said adding that textile sector holding 56 percent share in export is not performing as per the expectations.
He said that new blood should be infused in the export related institutions, tax system should be improved, refunds should be paid and continued supply of energy should be ensured.
Taxation system should be made simple as the difficulties have left only 0.24 percent people as taxpayers, whereas in India it is 2.7 percent.
Regressive and imbalanced taxation system has become an incentive for the people to prefer evasion over paying taxes while a part of the business community favours undocumented economy over the documented one.
Many industrialists are left with no options but to relocate or start trading, lack of investment is hurting everything including the young having a population of 11 crore, he noted.
Mian Zahid lashed out at the recent move to burden the honest consumers by Rs25 billion through a new surcharge to cope with the losses of power companies that will increase power theft which has already touched mark of Rs. 180 billion.
