Former President of the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI), Dr. Shahid Rasheed Butt, said on Sunday that the boom in the stock market is a good sign of the stability of the economy. He said that tax, energy, and agricultural sectors should be prioritized to increase the speed of economic stability. 

Shahid Rasheed Butt said in a statement issued here today that incentives, government expenditure, and tax on the industrial sector should be reduced. In contrast, taxes on agricultural income and the wholesale, retail, and real estate sectors should be increased to improve the economy. The loss-making government institutions should be sold; taxes should be increased on the rich and reduced on the poor for an economic turnaround. 

The business leader noted that the government had taken several measures showing positive effects, including control of smuggling, speculation, and other shady businesses. However, he said, the fertilizer mafia’s activities are on the rise, which amounts to playing with the lives of millions of farmers and the country’s food security, which warrants urgent action. 

He said that to improve the economy, there would have to be an increase in foreign investment and remittances. This will increase the foreign exchange reserves and reduce the difficulties in debt repayment. 

Saudi Arabia, UAE, China, and Qatar are interested in investing in agriculture, refinery, and mineral projects, and it is the authorities’ job to remove bottlenecks. 

Shahid Rashid Butt said that the FBR is taking steps to bring new people into the tax net and prevent tax evasion, which needs to be increased.

Nevertheless, this time around, instead of making people with low incomes a scapegoat, it has to target the elite who are getting annual benefits worth seventeen and a half billion dollars, and no government is willing to reduce this amount even a little bit, which is surprising.

The non-taxpaying elite will only collectively think of saving the system when they see it collapsing or in a crisis that directly affects them. To expect them to contribute to increasing the tax-to-GDP ratio seems unlikely.

If the elite could not be controlled, the problems of Pakistan would never be reduced, he said, adding that the current situation is a test of the vision of our leadership.