LAHORE : Advisor to Prime Minister on Finance Abdul Hafeez
Sheikh Thursday constituted a high powered committee to rectify
anomalies in the budget for addressing the legitimate grievances of the
business community to boost up the economic and trade besides ease of
doing business.
He expressed these views while talking to an 18-member delegation of
Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) who called
upon him under the chair of its President Engineer Daroo Khan.
Advisor toPrime Minister on Commerce Abdul Razak Dawood, Advisor to Prime Minister on
Austerity Dr Ishrat Hussain and FBR Chairman Shabbar Rizvi and other high
ranking officials were also present on this occasion. From FPCCI side,
Patron in chief UBG SM Muneer, United Business Group (UBG) Iftikhar Ali
Malik, former FPCCI President Zubair Tufail, SVP Mirza Ikhtiar Baig,
Senator Haseeb Khan, Eng M A Jabbr and all Vice Presidents were also
there.
Giving an overview of the economic indicators the PTI government faced
after coming into power, Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said incumbent government
inherited 31000 billion rupees as domestic debt and foreign loans were
hovering around 100 billion dollars. He said foreign reserves stood at less
than 10 billion dollars while exports in last five years registered zero
percent growth. He said trade deficit was touching the mark of 20 billion
dollars while fiscal deficit had reached at a staggering amount of 2300
billion rupees. Besides, circular debt was increasing by 38 billion rupees
each month.
Abdul Hafeez further said our thrust will be on manufacturing rather than
trading as it creates more job opportunities for people. He said private
sector will be motivated to create jobs by giving them tax breaks on new
hiring. He said that FPCCI and top leaders of private sector have also
been proper representation in the committee to make it effective forum to
deliver the goods timely.
