PSMA chief for resuming production in all industries

The prolong closure of industry is likely to seriously hit the revenue collection of the government, besides creating massive unemployment.
Zafar Mahmood, chairman of the Pakistan Soap Manufacturers Association (PSMA), has said that the industry is a major source of taxes for the government and is also a major employment provider. However, the prolonged closure of industry is most likely to seriously affect the revenue collection for the federal as well provincial governments.
"The government's stimulus economic package of Rs1.2 trillion would also be at risk if there is no recovery from taxes. Therefore, there is a need that the government should allow all industries to resume production with safety measures to keep the economic cycle alive," he added.
The government can issue strict procedures for the industry and the whole supply chain which can assist in curtailing the Covid-19 spread and furthermore, all wholesale and retail markets are also required to be opened, he said.
"It will be a very difficult decision, but we need to find the optimum balance between a total lockdown and allowing industries and businesses to operate. This will help economy to come back on track, businesses to start getting towards normality and immediate resumption of employment," the chairman of PSMA said.
He said that there was a need for the lockdown to create awareness about COVID-19 among the people and create social distancing, and now this objective had been greatly achieved, and it was observed that 90 percent of the people on roads were wearing masks.
However, the majority of the industry was still closed due to the current lockdown in the country, while the industries producing essential goods, which had been previously operating, would also gradually be closed down due to the closure of industries providing them raw material, he said.
Quoting the example of soap, he said that it was an essential product to fight against the spread of COVID-19. The industries producing caustic soda, which was the basic raw material for soap, also produced chlorine as a by-product, which was either sold or further converted into downstream products.
However, the industry had also been forced into closing their operations as there were no supplies of caustic soda due to the closure of the soap manufacturing industry.
So if the current lockdown was further extended, the essential goods industry like food and medicine would also be at a great risk of coming to a halt, he warned.