KARACHI: Chairman of the FPCCI Advisory Board and National Business Group Pakistan and the President of Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum, Mian Zahid Hussain said that the rate of increase in the country’s population and unemployment has become alarming.
He said a minimum growth rate of six percent is necessary to tackle unemployment, and a fundamental change in some important policies is necessary as the current policies do not allow the growth rate to rise above three percent. Mian Zahid Hussain said that to increase the growth rate, the mark-up rate should be brought down to single digits, and electricity prices should also be brought down to nine cents. He said that reducing the mark-up and power tariff will boost trade and industry, as well as increase employment and revenue.
Mian Zahid Hussain added that whenever a government tries to increase the growth rate, imports go out of control, and a payment crisis starts, which requires borrowing to solve. The solution to this problem lies in real reforms, but no government has ever tried to reform without pressure from the IMF, and when it did, it was not meaningful reforms.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that the rulers, business community, and people have always been irresponsible in financial matters in Pakistan. Now, many institutions and countries have started to understand that any government in Pakistan has no capacity or desire to undertake reforms and that giving a loan to it is equivalent to wasting their capital.
The business leader said that one of the major obstacles to reforms is the influential class, which is reaping the benefits from a weak system. If things start running on merit, their benefits will be reduced.
Since this class keeps moving all its wealth out of the country, it is not concerned about the country’s future and is busy reaping the benefits as much as possible while the public watches helplessly.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that another permanent cause of the country’s economic crisis is the weakening relationship between the government and the people, which the FBR is responsible for. Under the guise of this lack of trust, shopkeepers, wholesalers, and people associated with agriculture do not want to pay taxes, and those who pay taxes are burdened with more taxes and do not get any facilities in response. Instead of reducing this lack of trust between taxpayers and tax collectors, it is continuously widening, boosting the black economy and shrinking the size of the documented economy.
Mian Zahid said that the countries that are called and considered friendly are now tired of Pakistan, and their loan terms, interest rates, etc., are much stricter than those of the IMF and other Western countries and banks, which should be enough to open our eyes.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024