Complete harmony between the government, bureaucracy and public is imperative to achieve the ultimate objectives of progress, prosperity and stability of Pakistan, said Engineer Muhammad Saeed Sheikh President Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI). He was addressing to the participants of 20th Senior Management course of the National Management College (NMC) Lahore here on Tuesday.
He said the government in collaboration with the business community is making serious efforts to stabilise national economy. Due to our consistent efforts, the GDP growth during 2015-16 stood at 4.24 per cent and hopefully it will become 5 per cent during the current fiscal year.
He said that despite of the positive macroeconomic indicators the fruits of progress and prosperity have not been trickled down to the lowest strata. He said that we have to realign our policies to gear up the trickledown effect of our achievements. Continuing, he said that the taxation system is neither simple nor uniform. Some sectors are exempted from tax while others are heavily taxed. He demanded a uniform taxation system to promote the tax culture in Pakistan. He further said that during a meeting in FCCI the FBR officials had assured that at least 1 lac new tax payers would be added in the tax net. But this promise has not been fulfilled.
Saeed Sheikh said that government prefers consultation with the business community on business related issues and as a result of this process 5 exports sectors were declared zero-rated. Similarly government had assured and was also supplying uninterrupted electricity and gas to the industrial sectors. He said that FCCI has taken yet another bold step to send trade delegations to the potential markets of other countries. He said that two delegations have recently visited Sweden and Germany while four other are in the pipeline.
Responding to a question, he said that FCCI has 5000 members within its fold. They belong to all sectors of national economy and FCCI is making continuous efforts to resolves their day to day issues. Rana Sikandar Azam senior vice president thanked the participants of the meeting and said that bureaucracy has played a major role in providing much needed relief to the public. Quoting the example, he said that Naseem Sadiq is remembered by the people of Faisalabad only because of his dedicated and committed work in best interest of the general public.
Ahmed Hassan Vice president said that CPEC is a game changer mega project and we must adopt a consensus policy to fully harvest its fruits for the future progress and prosperity of Pakistan. Earlier Mr Tariq Najeeb Najmi conducting staff thanked the management of FCCI for arranging this meeting and briefing the senior officers about the economic perception of local entrepreneur. The meeting was also addressed by Ahmed Hassan vice president FCCI who presented FCCI shield to. Najmi. Similarly, Tariq Najeeb Najmi also presented NSC crest to FCCI president Engineer Muhammad Saeed Sheikh. Muhammad Abid, Haji Shafi, Abdul Qayyum, Muzzamal Sultan, Dr Habib Aslam Gaba, Farooq Yusuf, Chaudhary Muhammad Nawaz and Chaudahry Talat Mahmood also attended the meeting.