Agriculture and manufacturing sectors should not be spoiled at the expense of trading while it is encouraging that there is a growing realisation in the country that trading is not the future of Pakistan.
Shabbar Zaidi, president, South Asia Federation of Accountants (Safa) and Partner in AF Ferguson & Co said this at a post-budget seminar organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP). The speakers of the seminar appreciated the government for its decision to provide relief and support to the agriculture sector and raised the import duty on 300 luxury items.
Considering the burden that the huge trade deficit has put on economy, Zaidi said, even if the government slapped a ban on the import of luxury goods for the time being it would not be a wrong decision. Unprecedented rise in imports have added to the miseries of the local industry along with some other serious problems like power shortage, high interest rates, high cost of input and unskilled labour, he said.
"We need small manufacturing units in the country although large-scale units are also feasible which provide a strong base for economy. Pakistan has no option but to go for industrialisation," he firmly said. Zubair Motiwala, Managing Director of Diamond Textiles, said government in budget 2008-09 has put little focus on agriculture but did not come up to the expectations of industry of the country.
It is shameful that we have not been able to allocate due funds for education, which is our destination. Problems of extremism and fundamentalism in the country will be easily solved when people have employment. Industrialisation is the only solution before Pakistan, he asserted.
There has been a difference of at least 2.5 times in per acre yield of cotton and sometimes this difference goes up to four times between the Indian and Pakistani Punjab. Indian Punjab has much better output, however both sides Punjab have almost same fertility and people have same mindsets, he informed.
Present Indian government is very keen to generate employment by expanding its textile sector which they think is the only sector that can solve the employment problem while our policies for textile are contrary to India. Rising gas prices and one-percent increase in General Sales Tax (GST) would affect industry especially textile industry, he said.
A Japanese survey shows that Pakistan has potential to produce 20,000 MW energy through small dams. I do not know why government is not acting pro-actively to overcome the issue of power shortage, he said.
Zubair said that vibrancy of economy and industry in last some years helped Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to achieve revenue targets that has been raised from Rs 360 billion to Rs one trillion in last couple of years and these targets have been achieved when government stopped harassing businessmen and industrialists. Ebrahim Sidat, FCA, Country Managing Partner, Ford, Rhodes, Sidat Hyder & Co Chartered Accountants also spoke.
Comments
Comments are closed.