The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) has urged the government to extend the period of amnesty scheme for investors in stocks. This was stated by Zakaria Usman, president of FPCCI, during his visit to the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) here on Wednesday.
Talking to media persons after ringing the bell to formally begin the trading of the day, he said he had proposed the Governor of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) at a meeting on Tuesday to extend the period of amnesty scheme further for investors in stocks. He said the amnesty scheme, which was announced in 2012 and applicable for two years, had granted immunity to stock investors from disclosing their source of income. He said that this scheme had played a catalytic role in progress of the stock exchange.
Zakariya urged the authority concerned to attract overseas Pakistanis to invest in local and regional bourses like India, Vietnam and South Korea, where substantial investments generated from overseas nationals to avoid borrowing from foreign financial institutions.
He also lambasted the incumbent government for not passing on the impact of reduced oil prices to the common man, saying the government instead of trimming utility tariffs and commodity prices down was now planning to escalate power tariff, which is unjustified.
Moreover, he said that SECP rules should also be amended in order to facilitate the business community and make competitive environment for them. He apprised that the government had constituted a committee to review recommendations and suggestions made by the FPCCI in its shadow budget.
He said the FPCCI had strongly advised the government to impose only 5 per cent tax across the board under final tax regime and hoped that this proposal may also be discussed by the committee. He said: "There is a misperception on the GSP Plus status, which is not for three years but for 10 years." "There are two major challenges - energy crisis and law and order situation - and concerned authorities are avid to resolve both issues soon." "We are hopeful to yield fruits from the GSP Plus status."
He urged the government to take all stakeholders from stock and business community on board to evolve a policy for sustainable economic growth. Nadeem Naqvi, Managing Director of KSE, Ismail Suttar, vice president of FPCCI, Haroon Asif, Deputy Managing Director, Majid Azam, Director KSE, Abid Ali, Director KSE, and others were present on the occasion.
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