Call for simplifying taxation and labour laws

The business environment for SMEs cannot be made conducive without simplifying the regulations pertaining to taxation and labour.
It was observed by the participants of the first meeting of the SME Policy Task Force's Working Committee on Business Environment held here on Wednesday with Nauman Wazir, a member of the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (Smeda) Board and Chief Executive, Frontier Founders in the chair.
Those attended the meeting included Chief Executive Officer Smeda, Shahab Khawaja, Rana Muhammad Tariq of Rana Construction Company, Peshawar, Mukkarram Khan of Industries Department NWFP, Khalid Khan of STEDC, Sajid Hussain, Director EPB, Malik Muhammad Sadiq, Senior Chief P&D Punjab and various others.
Speaking on the occasion Nauman Wazir announced to hold a series of meetings of the working committee to firm up views in consultation with the private sector.
Once the policy recommendations are compiled, the same would be presented in the national seminars to be held in the four provinces of the country for general discussion and feed back from the stakeholders, he added. He hoped that by this way, the country would be able to have the best SME policy in place.
Earlier, the participants discussed the major obstacles hindering creation of a conducive business environment in Pakistan and presented a number of suggestions to overcome the situation.
Nauman Wazir, summing up the suggestions, announced to set-up five sub-committees for further deliberations. Two committees will compile country reports comprising best international practices of the SME policy and rest of the three committees will derive recommendations on cost of doing business, policy & regulations and institutions & infrastructure. Each of the committee is comprised of two members, one from private sector and the other from Smeda.
These sub-committees have been asked to accomplish their tasks before next meeting of the Working Committee on Business Environment, which is to be held by mid of July 2004.
Later, Shahab Khawaja CEO Smeda urged the private sector to work side by side with authority for developing a radical SME policy.