Logjam in economic progress and serious economic challenges have made the role of ministry of finance most important therefore the newly appointed State Minister of Finance Rana Afzal Khan needs to put in his best efforts to put the economy back on the track.
LCCI President Malik Tahir Javaid called for immediate measures to improve the economic indicators and socio-economic structure of the country. While giving some proposals, he said that consultation in policy making would bring economy out of mire therefore stakeholders must be taken on board on economic matters. He said that private sector should be facilitated and a plan should be evolved to improve declining exports.
He said in next two decades, over 28 million new jobs will be required. This target can easily be achieved by promoting power, mining, manufacturing, transportation and service industries. In agriculture, the focus should be on value addition chain that is expected to become more attractive for new jobs based in processed and semi processed agro-based industries like juices, ready to use meet, dairy and poultry items.
He was of the view that only direct taxes should be levied and indirect taxation should be removed. Income of agricultural produce that falls in the taxable income range must be taxed. The people with land occupancy of more than ten hectare should be taxed, if the land has been cropped. For the construction of new dams, he proposed the constitution of National Water Council (NWC).
The LCCI president said that amongst the alternate sources of energy biomass shows tremendous potential. The total capacity in biomass is 22,800 MW in Pakistan and a little technical training is required to make use of this resource. The Alternate Energy Board must concentrate on it to establish these units in villages, he suggested.
He said coal, hydropower and biomass will produce energy at a flat rate of less than Rs 5 per unit for next twenty years, helping manufacturing industry to grow unabated with no taxation on inputs and availability of technically better quality workforce. Increased yield in cotton will support local textile industry to take leadership role in the market.
He advised to the state to withdraw all profiteering and taxation from energy sector. Any new projects with public-private partnership should ensure that they work on no-profit-no-loss basis. He said with more than 10 trillion dollars worth of natural resources Pakistan must concentrate for two decades on developing local technology for excavation of minerals such as copper, coal, iron, and gold.