Governor Punjab Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar has said that trade and industry related issues would be taken up with the federal government soon. He stated this while talking to LCCI Senior Vice President Mian Nauman Kabir and Vice President Syed Mahmood Ghaznavi here at Governor House.
Mian Nauman Kabir and Syed Mahmood Ghaznavi apprised the Governor of the issues being faced by the business community such as energy crisis, law and order situation, complicated taxation system, tax reforms, SRO 608 and petrol crisis etc. The Governor agreed with the LCCI Senior Vice President Mian Nauman Kabir and Vice Present Syed Mahmood Ghaznavi that tax procedures should be simplified, untaxed sectors should be taxed while there must be a comprehensive strategy to deal with under-invoicing, smuggling and high rate of taxes.
He also agreed to patronise the LCCI OIC Ambassadors Conference 2015 and assured to extend every possible help for the cause of this mega event. Sarwar said the Punjab government believes that the OIC Ambassadors Conference would give new boost to business among Muslim countries that have a huge potential in various sectors of the economy.
On the occasion, the LCCI senior vice president and vice president gave a detailed briefing to the Governor on the OIC Ambassadors Conference. They said that the LCCI was not only putting in its relentless efforts for the promotion of regional trade but was also working out a strategy to promote trade among all 57 Muslim countries.
While talking about taxation issues, LCCI members said that there must be frequent meetings between the LCCI and the FBR authorities as any further delay in resolution of these issues would hit hard the government's plans to revive economic activities. Ghaznavi stressed upon the need to bring down the mark-up rate to seven percent as high markup rate was making the Pakistani products uncompetitive. He said that government should initiate tax reforms as complicated taxation system was creating unrest amongst the business community.
The LCCI office-bearers also urged the Governor to play their role for bringing the untaxed sectors including the Agriculture sector into the tax net. Meanwhile, Governor also accepted the invitation to visit the LCCI. Governor assured the LCCI office-bearers that soon he will visit the chamber.