The business community of Faisalabad has deferred its protestation of February 08 and wheel-jam strike call of February 10 on the assurance of Governor Punjab Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar. Meanwhile, a joint committee consisting of local parliamentarians and business leaders has been constituted to resolve the conflicting issues.
Governor Punjab Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar was addressing a joint press conference after a meeting with Rana Sikandar Azam, President Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI), Mian Naeem Ahmed Chairman and Arif Ihsan Malik Vice Chairman of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the business community.
Governor said that he has been instructed by Prime Minister Imran Khan to immediately visit Faisalabad and resolve the problems of business community. He said that he himself belong to this class and fully understand their issues. "It is very encouraging that businessmen are ready to pay taxes as we could not run the country without their taxes", he added. "However, in undocumented economy we have to plan short, medium and long term strategies to expand the tax net and for this purpose we have to work jointly", Governor opined.
"I fully understand your view point", he told and added that government had made a commitment to make refund claims of exporters within 72 hours. "I was also present in this meeting", he said and added that unluckily, this commitment could not be materialized. He said that cash flow is major concern of any businessmen and if 17 percent capital of a business is excluded from his circulation, he will be unable to run his business. "I had raised this issue in the Core Committee and Prime Minister had issued clear directive that there should be no delay in the payment of refund claims", he told.
He said that he understand that businessmen and industrialists have no links with politics and we have also categorically assured them before election that no one of them would be victimized on the basis of his political affiliation and we have honored this commitment," he proudly announced. He further told that national development is directly linked with business community as they will generate wealth, provide jobs and pay taxes to run the country.
Responding to a question, Governor Punjab said that no delaying tactics would be used during negotiations with business community and final decision would be made as soon as the recommendations of committee were discussed and approved by the concerned ministries.
Faiz Ullah Kamoka, Chairman National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs said that he had openly pleaded the case of business community of Faisalabad in national assembly and has also convened an immediate meeting of this standing committee on February 04. He assured that the routine agenda of this meeting will be deferred and only problems identified by the business community would be discussed in this meeting. He also invited Rana Sikandar Azam to participate in this meeting while business leaders from other important industrial and business cities would also be requested to attend it.
He requested President FCCI that he should withdraw his strike call so that this committee could work and complete its recommendations with complete peace of mind. Responding to the concerns of some business leaders, he assured that committee will make sincere efforts to resolve the problems as soon as possible. However, if we failed to resolve the issues we will never come back to you and you will be free for any strike or protestation.
Earlier, Rana Sikandar Azam President FCCI said that government has clamped 17 percent Sales Tax on zero rated sectors. "The electricity tariff has been enhanced despite categorical commitment of 7.5 cent per unit to 13 percent", he said and added that this has made for the business community impossible to continue their businesses. The industries are also being closed and in this situation more than 150 trade organizations have unanimously decided to launch protest and go on strike. He said he had detailed meetings with Advisor to PM on Commerce Razak Dawood and chairman FBR Shabbar Zaidi but without any conclusion. "I also had a meeting with PM on January 20 and informed him of the gravity of the situation," he told and added that his advisors are not painting true picture of situation.
President FCCI told that business community has nothing to do with politics but being head of FCCI, he cannot ignore the problems of his members. In this connection, a JAC was constituted which gave a call for token strike to attract the attention of government to our core issues. He said that yesterday, he addressed a press conference after a protest camp in Clock Tower Chowk in which four major demands were presented. He said that business community was of the opinion that we must continue protestation on daily basis but after consultation the JAC decided to organize a protest meeting on February 08 and also gave wheel-jam strike call for February 10. "I am thankful to Prime Minister who took immediate notice and directed Governor Punjab to visit Faisalabad and resolve our issues", he added. He also quoted speech of Faiz Ullah Kamoka on assembly floor and said that he has convened a meeting of NA Standing Committee to discuss this issue. He said that as negotiations with different ministries may consume time, hence we defer our protestation and wheel-jam strike call of February 10. He was optimistic that the committee comprising of parliamentarians and business community would submit its recommendation before February 08, while Governor Punjab and local parliamentarians will ensure implementation on the same.
During this meeting, MNA Khurram Shahzad, MPAs Latif Nazar and Shakil Shahid, SVP Zafar Iqbal Sarwar, VP FCCI Bilal Waheed Sheikh, Miand Naeem Ahmed Chairman and Arif Ihsan Malik VC of JAC were also present in addition to the representatives of other trade organizations.
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