The District Coordination Officer Lahore, Khalid Sultan, has said that the government is alive to all the problems being faced by the public in general and the business community in particular. He was speaking at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) on Monday.
The meeting was also addressed by LCCI President Mian Misbahur Rehman, Senior Vice President Sohail Lashari and Vice President Sheikh Mohammad Arshad. FPCCI Vice President (Punjab Zone) Azhar Saeed Butt, LCCI members Aftab Vohra, Younas Sheikh, Yousaf Shah and Tahir Javed Malik were also present.
Khalid Sultan spoke at length and highlighted various projects the government has launched for the wellbeing of trading community. He said that the city needs Rs 30 billion to develop it up to international standards but the resource constraint is coming in the way. He said that the city district government has Rs 6.2 billion budget for this year, out of which Rs 5.2 billion are being spent on non-development expenditure and only Rs 1 billion are left for the developmental projects.
Responding to a question about the parking problem in the city, he said that number of vehicles was increasing rapidly due to car-financing schemes of the banks and every month 10,000 motor vehicles got registered in the city. He asked the private sector to come forward to help the city district government (CDG) to overcome the parking problem. Talking about the traffic problems and encroachments in Shah Alam Market, he said that CDG has prepared a comprehensive plan in this regard, which would be implemented soon.
About fast deteriorating law and order situation, he said that police-liaison help desk could be established at LCCI as under new Police Order, the police got maximum autonomy. About the dewatering of rainy water, he said that the chief minister has announced a package for this purpose and the situation would improve in coming days.
Earlier, Mian Misbah invited the attention of the DCO towards a number of important issues including poor law and order situation, scarcity of parking plazas and double taxation. He stated that poor law and order situation is not only tarnishing the image of the country abroad but also keeping foreign investors away thus hampering economic growth. He proposed that a special desk in the name of "Businessmen-Police Liaison Desk" could be established at LCCI to take up the problems of business community with regard to the police department. Talking about citizen-police liaison committee in Lahore, he said that progress had stalled on the much-touted plan to form such a committee in Lahore along the lines of those in Karachi and Faisalabad. He said that the committee should be activated as early as possible.
About parking plazas in city, he said in order to ease out the traffic congestion in highly concentration areas like M.M. Alam Road in Gulberg, Ichhra, Hall Road, McLeod Road along Mall Road, Circular Road around Walled City there is a need to establish parking structures in these area on priority basis. He said that local trade and industry has to deal with a large number of taxes imposed and collected by federal and provincial governments. Professional tax is one such examples of the double taxation, which is being collected by the provincial government as well as city district government. The CDG is charging it under the head of fee for licensing, permission for profession and business license under rules 2003. He said that a committee should be set up to review the number of taxes collected by different agencies and city district government could be asked to sit with the LCCI to review the existing tariffs to make them practicable.
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