ISLAMABAD: Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan, president of the All Pakistan Malls Association (APMA) and former president of ICCI along with all the APMA members have approached the Prime Minister of Pakistan along with the Finance Minister and the Minister of Commerce, on the stringent and non-business conducive decision made by the government to impose reduced business hours for all retail operations in Pakistan.

The APMA firmly believes that reducing business hours would be counterproductive both in the short- and the long-term; it would have a negative impact on the business, the country and further crippling the economy.

The shopping malls are very important to the economy as they contribute to almost 20 percent of the nation’s GDP while bringing in billions of rupees in the form of direct and indirect taxes. They also provide direct and indirect forms of employment to more than hundreds and thousands of individuals respectively. Those employees make up more than 16 percent of the workforce from the lower- and middle-class of Pakistan that consist of youth and women who are living and relying on daily wages.

Reducing hours would leave that population struggling to make ends meet considering the current inflation scenario.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022