ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) has requested Prime Minister Imran Khan to introduce an industry package on the pattern of the construction package for encouraging investment in the domestic market without probing the source of investment for a time-bound period.
Talking to Business Recorder here at ICCI Saturday, ICCI President Sardar Yasir Ilyas said that the government must take the ICCI on board for chalking out economic policies. The economic reforms can only be effective by taking the feedback of the key stakeholder, ie, the business community.
"Neither are we heard in the Senate nor in the parliament," he commented.
There is a need for having a regular dialogue between the relevant ministries and the business community for devising economic policies for the next two years. He said that the country was heavily dependent on imports, and the government had taken a very hard stance on imports by substantially raising duties and taxes including regulatory duties on imported items.
For instance, vehicles are subjected to the highest import duty of 300 percent, and later 17 percent sales tax was imposed on used vehicles.
"If the government wants to promote the local market then, it must establish local trade."
"I request the prime minister to introduce an industry package like the construction package, so that the people invest on industries as well without questioning the source of investment. The imposition of barriers on the imports might reduce the trade deficit for sometime, but in the long run these products are still coming in the black market, and people are paying a premium, which is eventually increasing inflation," he said.
Opposing the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Point of Sale (POS) system, he said that the ICCI was not endorsing the integration with the POS.
"We don't believe that the traders must integrate with the POS system, it happens nowhere in the world."
He said that the ICCI was lobbying for the new Islamabad industrial estate.
The I-9 and I-10 industrial estate is already saturated. We are lobbying with the Punjab government in this regard. The ICCI is working for the launching of the new industrial estate for Islamabad for which ICCI has established a dedicated Rs6 billion fund.
About the FBR desk, he said that the business community was getting all the information on the FBR taxes under one roof at the FBR desk at the ICCI. He accepted that the physical interaction between the tax officials and taxpayers has ended through electronic means. But if you want to bring the people in the tax bracket then you have to interact with the tax officials.
The ICCI is planning a tax seminar in which the FBR chairman can respond to the questions of the business and trade. About major challenges being faced by the business community, the ICCI chairman said that we are committed to enhance exports, but unfortunately we did not have any support from the Board of Investment (BOI).
This is very tragic since the BOI has a very important function in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) as well as enhancing exports, he said. The ICCI is working closely with all foreign missions to enhance bilateral trade. The ICCI has contacted commercial counsels of foreign missions abroad and local embassies.
During last two months, we have spoken to our missions at Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Denmark, and those in the Middle East. The Tanzania Chamber of Commerce and the ICCI had inked an agreement on bilateral trade during recent visit of their chamber's president to Pakistan.
The ICCI is committed to focus on domestic and international growth for all the businesses related to us. Within this context, we are working closely with all the foreign missions, ministries, and all chambers of commerce.
About exports, he said that the export of Pakistan was pretty much stagnant for the last five years - in the range of $22 billion. Whereas, our capacity is in terms of human resource and industry, we can easily export close to $ 100 billion, which includes agriculture, minerals, marbles, textile, etc.
If we look at the stats, from 2003 to 2019, India, Iran, and China have enhanced their global market share to 217-220 percent, whereas, market share of Pakistan has been declined to nearly 17-19 percent in the same period. If we had coordinated with them definitely we would have absorbed the market share up to the $50 billion worth of export today with the same circumstances.
There are multiple factors, like lack of promotion and no road shows in the last two and a half years through which we can promote "made in Pakistan".
Due to the Covid-19 situation, the business community has requested the FBR for two kinds of relaxations: one deferment of tax returns till next year; second the FBR may offer installment plans for payment of taxes to ensure cash flow and avoid liquidity crunch.
Almost every country has given some kind of relief to the business community during the Covid situation. Under the bailout packages, 100 million have been given by the US, the UK, and the EU through their central banks to those businesses who are taxpayers.
In Pakistan, there are only 7-8 percent genuine taxpayers, but they have not been offered any relaxation or bailout package. The government has asked the business community not to lay off any employees without providing any financial assistance or help, and the business community is working on self-sustainability.
About induction of the new Revenue Minister Waqar Masood, he said that the government must engage some experienced entrepreneur or the CEO/chairman of a group from the private sector in the government's policy-making decisions.
"A classic example of this is President Donald Trump; he is a successful businessman. He brought about policy reforms which changed the last five years of the economy."
One of the primary functions of the ICCI is to protect and promote the interest of every business affiliated with the ICCI, he said. The ICCI chairman added that for the first time in the history of the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce, we have a female senior vice president. Collectively if we see the strength of women members of the chamber, there are around 300 women business women.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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