(Jan-22-2024)
Chairman of National Business Group Pakistan, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum, President All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain said on Monday that continued high inflation has made life very difficult for the people.
He claimed that it is incorrect to attribute the inflation to the IMF’s requirements because numerous state-run businesses are partly to blame for the current state of affairs
According to Mian Zahid Hussain, we should take responsibility for our own economic shortcomings as they are the cause of the lender’s strict requirements.
Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that electricity, gas, and oil prices have increased tremendously. At the same time, interest rates were also raised to a record level of 22%, which badly affected people and the business community.
However, these measures improved the country’s financial affairs, which were on the verge, he added.
In addition, he said, the government should have taken some steps to relieve the commoner, but this did not happen.
The business leader said indirect taxation is also a problem for the man on the street. The share of these direct taxes in total revenue is still between 75 and 80 percent.
Indirect tax is easy to collect but increases inflation and poverty, while collecting direct tax is difficult but does not affect people experiencing poverty.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that the ratio of the direct tax rate in the country is very low, and there seems to be a need for more will among authorities to increase it.
He noted that efforts to reduce mismanagement, corruption, incompetence, and losses in electricity, oil, and gas have not succeeded for decades. The questionable policy of continuously increasing the price of these items has been adopted, increasing poverty in the country.
The high cost of power, gas, and fuel is hitting production and exports, and it has not made any significant difference to the losses of these sectors, while circular loans reached Rs 6,000 billion.
Mian Zahid Hussain further said that continued borrowing from banks, without increasing production, has increased inflation in the country. At the same time, the private sector has been crowded out of the debt market.
He demanded that authorities sell loss-making entities; the price of power, gas, and fuel should be reduced as the income of the people has dropped and they are unable to endure the pressure of the situation.
He asked if people experiencing poverty had nothing to eat and how the country would find stability because of the election.
No political party is aware of critical economic issues, and no one seems ready to learn lessons from economic mistakes.
Because of the election, the party that comes to power will have to abandon harmful policies; otherwise, the country’s economic situation will further deteriorate.
