President Pakistan Muslim League Like Minded Group, Senator Salim Saifullah has emphasised the need of reducing markup rates on Wednesday at a meeting of Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI). He informed that markup rates are not more than 2 to 3 percent anywhere in the world. He was of the view that high markup rates are the root cause hampering industrial and export growth.
Salim Saifullah agreed with former President of KCCI Anjum Nisar that draft of Value Added Tax (TAX) should be consulted with representative of trade bodies before presenting the same in the national assembly for legislation. He said that the government must take all the stakeholders on board and law should be made in consultation with them to pave way for smooth implementation.
He also agreed with leader of Businessmen Group (BMG) Siraj Kassim Teli that government should prepare economic roadmap for the country in consultation with trade bodies and all political parties, adding that there should be no change in economic policy with the change of governments. He said continuity of policies is a must for boosting confidence of local and foreign business communities.
The senator noting that the country is facing serious economic crisis, said the government has no finances to take up new projects and added that the government should take general pubic into confidence and inform them about the factual condition of the country.
Salim Saifullah pointed out that during the last two years prices of Atta increased from Rs 13 per kg to Rs 30 per kg, pulses Rs 40 per kg to Rs 120 per kg, sugar jumped from Rs 24 per kg to Rs 70 per kg, dollar jumped from Rs 62 per dollar to Rs 87 per dollar besides tremendous increase in power and gas tariffs.
He further said that people are facing tremendous problem to meet day to day expenses owing to declining purchasing power as well as ever increasing prices of goods and utilities. The senator noted that population of Belgium is just 11 million and its exports are 375 billion dollars per annum while Pakistan, a much bigger country, has export target of just 21 billion dollars.