Speakers at the meeting of Shura Hamdard Karachi chapter while congratulating the nation on discovery of enormous deposits of costly minerals of gold, silver, copper and iron ore urged the government to bring down the prices of daily use items in order to give relief to common man in the wake of lowering trend of oil prices in international market.
The meeting was held recently on the theme: "Prices of Petroleum products and price hike of commodities," presided over by former Justice Haziqul Khairi. Speaking on the occasion, Dr Shahid Hasan Siddiqui, an economist said there was a 58 percent reduction in oil prices from July 01, 2014 to January 01, 2015, but the government had passed on only 35 percent relief to people in petroleum prices. When government did not give full benefits to people how we could expect full benefits from the transporters, traders and industrialists, they would do the same as government has done, he asserted.
He said, "There is no reason to raise GST up to 17 percent while government is taking profit of Rs 25 per litre petrol. If government be able to stop tax evasion the GST could be brought to 5 percent and that would give great relief to the people." "The lowering trend of petroleum prices in international market would at the most continue for two years only, so it is the right time that Pakistan should consolidate its economy," he added.
Sadia Rashid, President Hamdard Foundation Pakistan said despite the reduction in petroleum prices no fall of commodities' prices was witnessing in the markets and consumers got no relief. Consumers' resistance should be organized and promoted which could cause the prices of daily items to come down, she suggested.
Former Justice Haziqul Khairi said that local governments are the pillar of democracy and to strengthen the democracy it was necessary to hold local bodies elections. People could approach easily to the representatives of local governments and get solved their local problems, he added.
Professor Mohammed Rafi was of the opinion that interest was so mix-up in our society that there was no escape from interest as we were giving and taking interest even in our utility bills, deposits and salaries. Bank's interest was not the interest which was banned by Islam and instead of spending our energies in other things we should try to improve the system of Zakat, he added.-PR