This is apropos a Business Recorder news item "As election nears, PM pleases businesses" carried by the newspaper yesterday. According to it, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has announced a package of incentives of Rs 180 billion that envisages abolition of customs duty and sales tax on import of cotton, textile machinery and man-made fibre to boost exports.
The package is said to be aimed at boosting country's exports that have been on the decline ever since the present PML-N government came to power. No doubt, this is a highly laudable step. The question is: why has the government taken this step to facilitate major export sectors to help arrest the export slide through a plethora of tax and duty exemptions as an election lollipop?
It seems to be aimed at brightening PML-N's prospects in the 2018 general elections. Why had government allowed the exporters to become uncompetitive in the region in the first place? Doesn't it know the fact that it is always very difficult to regain the ground that you have already lost?