Withdrawal of certain SROs: Hardware merchants take strong exception

The hardware merchants have taken a strong exception to withdrawal of certain SROs regarding import of industrial machinery, parts and raw material.
Former Chairman, Pakistan Hardware Merchant Association and former member LCCI Executive Committee, Sardar Usman Ghani in a statement on Friday said that the business community was already striving for its survival in these very challenging and difficult times due to poor economic policies and now the sudden decision to do away with the certain exemptions would encourage smuggling through Afghan Transit Trade, besides increasing the level of corruption and depriving the government of much needed revenues.
"The prices of daily use items would also register an increase of 30 to 35 percent due to this anti-public decision." He said that the decision would multiply inflation. He added that it was very unfortunate that the mini budget was announced at a time when the government was bridging the resource gap by printing new notes worth over Rs 2 billion daily. "It would be wiser on the part of the government to review its decision after having a consultation with all the chambers and sector associations so that the implementation phase could be achieved.
Ghani said that the parliamentarians should use their influence to stop such foreign-sponsored technocrats decisions as the rosy picture being presented by these technocrats are contrary to ground realities. He said that the move to withdraw the subsidy on agriculture inputs and engineering items through the Ordinance would adversely affect the agriculture sector. The inputs and items including fertilisers, pesticides, tractors, plant machinery, equipment, implements and parts are essentially required for accelerated agriculture development, he said. He said that the withdrawal of subsidy would further slow down the agriculture development which needs to be accelerated to improve the economy of the country.
The agriculture sector has been damaged badly by floods, he said adding that under present circumstances, the agriculture needs provision of incentives not inappropriate and unfavourable policies such as withdrawal of subsidy as it will slow down progress of the agriculture sector.