LAHORE: Pakistan Industrial and Traders Associations Front (PIAF) has prepared an eight-point reform agenda to make forthcoming budget a milestone for economic revival, public welfare, sovereignty and self-reliance of the country.
In the agenda document issued here Monday, the PIAF Chairman Sohail Lashari said the next budget's focus must be on addressing the issues including heavy borrowing from international donors, complex taxation system, repeated increases in electricity rates, inflation, unemployment, law and order, unemployment and high cost of doing business.
He said that size of borrowing from International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) has crossed the mark of $ 54 billion, adding, the government's dependence on external debts was hitting the independence and sovereignty of the country.
Repeated increases in the electricity prices were the result of IMF strict conditionalities, while, the industrial input cost was growing with every passing day and Pakistani products are fast becoming incompetitive in the international market, he maintained.
The PIAF Chairman urged the Federal Finance Minister to pave way to get rid of foreign loans and evolve comprehensive strategy to utilize the resources available in the country. He said that government should restructure the public sector enterprises that are eating up billions of rupees annually.
He said that government should remove the weaknesses of the tax system as approximately 30 percent taxes being eaten up by the corrupt elements while the tax officials were misusing their discretionary powers.
He said that instead of enhancing the tax net, tax official were utilizing their all energies to squeeze those taxpayers who were already in the tax net. He said that government should lower the tax rate that would encourage the people to come into the tax net.
Lashari was of the view that Wapda has become a white elephant with a loss of Rs 391 billion due to mismanagement and incompetency of the relevant officials. He said that power theft was continued in the name of line losses with the connivance of the officials.
He demanded the government to stop power theft with iron hands and official involved should be punished.
He said that government has to improve the electricity bill collection system otherwise situation would further worsen. He said that electricity bill paying system was far better in Punjab than other parts of the country. He said that Rs. 60 billions were pending with the tribal areas. The facility of free electricity for hundreds of thousands of Wapda employees should also be withdrawn, he added.
PIAF Chairman urged the government to allocate funds for Kalabagh Dam in the federal Budget 2011-12, as the KBD was a must to ensure availability of water to the agriculture sector and cheaper electricity to both the trade and industry of the country. He said, in this regard, the government should develop consensus among the federating units.
Lashari said that government should also curtail its expenditures as well as eliminate of menace of corruption that has tarnished the image of the country.
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