On Monday, the Chairman of National Business Group Pakistan, President of Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum, All Karachi Industrial Alliance and Former Provincial Minister Mian Zahid Hussain welcomed the relief package worth Rs28 billion to save people from inflation shock after the recent hike in the price of petroleum products.
However, he said, industrialisation is the best option to improve the income of the people and generate revenue.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that focusing on industrialisation will boost employment, revenue, production and exports, enabling the country to import oil, gas and food items from the international market.
Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that the current rate of taxes and the attitude of the tax machinery keep most investors away from the industrial sector and tend towards the stock market, property, and other non-productive sectors.
The capital is flowing towards non-productive sectors, which do not positively affect the employment and revenue and overall economic situation, he added.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that reports of an increase in electricity tariff by Rs7 are disturbing. It will increase the price of everything while the country lacks an effective system to monitor and control costs.
Everything is getting costly, but the cost of construction materials has risen sharply, which will halt many projects and put millions out of work.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that preparations were being made to impose more taxes on petroleum products as a partial reduction in subsidies was not enough to satisfy the IMF.
Policymakers should work together to save the people from the storm of inflation and improve the tax system. There is a need to eliminate the legal loopholes due to which the elite save billions of rupees in taxes every year, and the entire burden is shifted to the people.
If the transport system is developed like other countries, the people’s dependence on personal transport will be reduced, which will help the country save millions of dollars, while the work-from-home policy should be promoted as far as possible.