KARACHI: The country’ first formal company for offline and online trading of gold was inaugurated in Karachi on Tuesday, targeting to generate about Rs 2.5 trillion revenue for the national exchequer in the next five years.

Talking to the media at the inaugural ceremony, Muhammad Shahid Zakariya, Chairman of Zakariya Group of the Companies informed that gold buying and selling is not fully regulated in the country, giving way to speculative trading, under and over invoicing, tax evasion, and black marketing.

He claimed that online and physical gold trading at Zakaria Gold Commodities would end speculative trading in the gold market due to its integration with network of national tax agency.

The buying and selling will be integrated with the system of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and the process will be monitored with tracking system, Shahid Zakariya said.

“We are planning to set up 2300 gold labs and 820 franchises across Pakistan. Our calculation shows that Rs2500 billion can be generated from this market within five years”, he added.

The company will release gold rate on daily basis in connection with Pakistan Mercantile Exchange Company (PMEX) as compared to the current practice of releasing rates by various tradition bodies, he informed.

He said that the government must took effective action with the assistance of the FIA, FBR, and other law enforcement agencies, cracking down hard on elements involved in speculation and black marketing of gold prices in the local market.

Zakaria Gold Commodities Private Limited was inaugurated by Farhan Tahir, Acting MD and CFO of Pakistan Mercantile Exchange Limited, while on this occasion Zakir Rahman, Chief Business Officer of Pakistan Mercantile Exchange Limited, Chairman of Zakaria Group of Companies M Shahid Zakaria, Muhammad Tariq, Syed Shahid Hasan, Habib Rehman, Mirza Akhtar Baig, Kashif Rehman and others were also present.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024