President of Korangi Association of Trade & Industry (KATI) Masood Naqi has said that Budget should be “industry friendly” as well as it should be “people friendly”. He said that prosperity of county’s economy only can achieve through prosper industry. He said that industrial sector is the single largest employment provider of the country but it is suffering many issues.

According to statement released by KATI he mentioned that increased cost of production, Tax and duties, expensive energy and raw material and underdeveloped industrial infrastructure causing slow growth of industry. He said that according to reports rate of industrial growth was reach only 5 pc during current fiscal year, which has been 5.8 pc during last financial year. He said that manufacturing could not achieve the growth target which was set to modest ratio of 6.1 pc for the year and only can reach to 5.8 pc. Naqi said that in large scale sector, growth target wasn’t achieved. He alerted that until government wouldn’t take measures to cut down production cost, process of industrialization cannot be up to the mark. He said that tax collection machinery only focuses on already register tax payers instead of taking measure to expand tax net. “For growth in industrial sector and exports smuggling of finished products, raw materials should be curbed. Import of industry related items should be duty free or levied with lower ratios.” He suggested. He urged to promote investment opportunity for industrial sector in his statement. He further said that it is expected that suggestions of business community would be accommodated in upcoming national budget.