KARACHI: President of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) Agha Shahab Ahmed and a former president of the KCCI and Chairman of Businessmen Group (BMG) Siraj Kassam Teli have urged Prime Minister Imran Khan, Advisor on Finance Hafeez Shaikh, Advisor on Commerce and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood and Federal Minister for Industries and Production Hammad Azhar to announce across-the-board relief to all the sectors of the economy instead of pursuing "a pick-and-choose strategy" which would never benefit the domestic economy or the people in the middle and lower income categories.
Siraj Teli and Agha Shahab emphasized that all the businesses and industries had been sustaining losses and struggling to survive due to the coronavirus pandemic.
No industry or business had been spared the impact of the pandemic. Hence it was necessary that an across-the-board relief package was announced for all the sectors of trade and industry irrespective of their size and level of business. Recent relief packages announced by the SBP were limited mainly to the export sector or to certain medium-to-large employers.
A major part of the SMEs and nearly all of the domestic industries and businesses had not been benefited by any such package.
Most of the businesses and industry were finding it hard to stay solvent in the current circumstances and might be forced to declare bankruptcies if timely relief was not provided to them.
Siraj Teli said, "As survival is the name of the game so the government should immediately extend relief at any cost without wasting time otherwise the businesses are going to become bankrupt, and the economy would consequently sink. Support businesses now for survival and you (the government) can earn later."
Agha Shahab said, "The pick-and-choose strategy being pursued by the government is discriminatory towards domestic industry and trade, which is neither in the interest of businesses nor the economy so it has to be stopped and immediate relief must reach out to all categories and sectors of trade and industry rather than one or two selected sectors."
Appreciating the relief provided in electricity bills to consumers below 300 units and also the reduction in petroleum prices, Siraj Teli and Agha Shahab said that the business and industrial community welcomes these moves but these were not adequate and there was a need to do more.
In this regard, the government must announce further reduction in petroleum prices and also slash the electricity tariff, sales tax, income tax, federal excise duty and the withholding tax by 50 percent which would provide immediate relief to the entire nation.
They further advised the government to bring down the interest rate to four percent in line with strategies adopted by the economies around the world where the interest rates have been slashed down to zero.
They said that reduction in policy rate in bits and pieces was not enough to provide the much needed stimulus to the economy. Hence, it was necessary to significantly reduce the interest rate at one go to four percent to help businesses sail through the unprecedented crisis.