Trade bodies should play their pro-active role to resolve the problems confronted by the business community on top priority basis, said Chaudhry Muhammad Nawaz President Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI). He was addressing the oath-taking ceremony of newly elected office-bearers of the Anjman-e-Tajran Railway Road in FCCI auditorium here on Saturday.
He said national economy was directly linked with the trade and industry but unluckily "we ignore the issues relating to the trade and business. We never tried to identify our issues well in time enabling government and other policy making departments to consult the stakeholders and discourage taking unilateral decisions."
He said "when government completes its homework, take final decisions and starts recovering taxes, then the business community starts relating the gravity of the issue and starts protestation." He said "we should now abandon this practice and respond before any tax related legislation is materialized."
He said Faisalabad was very lucky in the sense that there were a large number of trade bodies representing various areas as well as trade. He said office-bearers of those organisations should remain vigilant and in case of any new tax proposal, they must intervene and immediately start negotiations with concerned departments with the courtesy of FCCI so that their demands could be inculcated in this legislation.
Syed Zia Alamdar Hussain, Senior Vice President, FCCI, appreciated the unity of the business community of Railway Road and said it was pre-requisite to resolve their problems that may become problematic in later phase. He said businessmen were patriotic and most of them prefer to fulfil their national obligations. A large number of them are already paying their taxes; however, they should convince their brethren who have not yet entered into the tax net to pay their taxes. "It is the only way through which we could dispel the negative impression that businessmen are reluctant to pay their taxes," he added.
Naeem Meer General Secretary Markzi Anjman-e-Tajran also underlined the importance of unity, cohesion and understanding between the business community, and said "we cannot resolve our issues if we remain divided into groups and sub-groups." He said there were 2.8 million shopkeepers in the country who had commercial electricity meters but out of those only 2.5 lakh were filling their income tax returns. He said they should also file their returns and fulfil their national obligation in best interest of the country.
Mirza Muhammad Ihsan ul Haq President Anjman-e-Tajran Railway Road said his elected body would fully cooperate with FCCI in addition to convincing other such bodies to forge unity to raise their voice at the provincial and national level. Ayub Aslam Manj of Anjman-e-Tajran Grain Market said that most of the trade bodies had failed to conduct their elections which are a challenge to their efficacy. He said "we will try to hold elections immediately after Eid-ul-Fitr so that a truly representative body could be elected and play its role in the resolution of their genuine problems."
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