Pakistan Industrial and Traders Associations Front (PIAF) has urged the government to allow duty-free import of printing paper by including this item into the list of essential items so that text books could be made available to the students at cheaper rates. This was stated by Chairman PIAF Sohail Lashari while addressing a reception hosted by traders of Paper Market & Urdu Bazaar in his honour, here on Thursday.
PIAF Senior Vice Chairman Nadar Kamal Osman, Chairman Anjuman-e-Tajran Urdu Bazaar Khalid Pervez, Chairman All Pakistan Paper Merchants Association Pervez Raza Ibrahim, Vice-Chairman Fazal Karim, Khamis Saeed Butt, Sameeullah Butt, LCCI former Presidents Mian Shafqat Ali, Mohammad Ali Mian and PIAF former Chairman Irfan Qaiser Sheikh were also present on the occasion.
The Chairman PIAF said that present regime had promised in its manifesto to give relief to the common man but it failed to deliver as per public expectations. He said that Prime Minister in his first speech announced to increase power generation in the country but he could not keep his words, while it was not the trade and industry alone but the common man was also in deep trouble due to power outages. He said that mindless policies have pushed us to the wall, therefore, it has now become important to ensure some relief to the people in the forthcoming budget.
Sohail Lashari demanded of the government to make the budget business friendly to come out of economic crisis, otherwise, situation would further worsen. He said that government should avoid implementation of new taxes and duties on the crisis-hit business community.