Miftah For Creating Conducive Environment For Businesses.

LAHORE -- Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Miftah Ismail Saturday directed the chairman of FBR and the governor of State Bank of Pakistan to look into the suggestions presented by the LCCI and create conducive environment for the businesses. He has asked the top men to hold meetings with the LCCI representatives.

He was speaking at a meeting at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry. LCCI President Mian Nauman Kabir presented the address of welcome while Senior Vice President Mian Rehman Aziz Chan and Vice President Haris Ateeq and chairman FBR also spoke on the occasion while governor SBP attended meeting through zoom. Former office-bearers and EC members were also present in the meeting. The finance minister said that when the government came into power in April, there was a serious threat of default as the foreign exchange reserves were $10.5 billion while $ 36 billion were required for debt repayments and other expenses so tough decisions, based on ground realities, were needed to avert the default. He said that no international financial institution is lending those countries that don't have three months' foreign exchange reserves.

About the withdrawal of subsidies on petroleum products and power, he said it was condition of IMF and was needed in order to bring Pakistan's economy on the right track. He declared that the risk of Pakistan's default had evaporated due to tough decisions such as an increase in energy prices and curtailment of imports, which slashed the demand for foreign exchange. He said that at present Rs. 7.5 per liter and Rs. 37.5 per liter taxes are imposed on diesel and petrol respectively.

Miftah Ismail said that unfortunately industrial growth could not grow at a pace, which was required. He said that the production of electricity doubled from 13,000MGW to 25,000MGW in 2013-2018, but industrial production did not grow enough to consume this energy and increase the exports of the country.

He said that at present, Pakistan's exports are $ 31 billion while imports are $ 80 billion. No country can afford such a large trade deficit so we have to control unnecessary imports. While mentioning present 9.5 % tax-to-GDP ratio, he said if we boost the rate of tax-to-GDP and exports-to-GDP ratios to 15%, the government will not need to ask for aid from the world. He said that per unit generation cost from jamshoro power plant is Rs.59 which reaches Rs. 78 after transmitting to the consumers. He said that the...