Steps taken for economic reform are insufficient: Mian Zahid.

Chairman of National Business Group Pakistan, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum, and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on June 17 said the steps taken for reforming the economy are insufficient.

The recent measures have increased the burden on the people to an unbearable level and they have not been able to bear any more burden, he said.

Mian Zahid Hussain said that instead of imposing more burden on the people, the elite should be targeted, tax should be imposed on agricultural income and failed companies sucking six hundred billion rupees from the national treasury should be sold.

Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that power and gas line losses should be controlled which are over Rs700 billion while taxes on industrial sector should be reduced which will speed up the industrialization process, develop the economy, provide employment to the people and generate billions of rupees in revenue for the government which can be used to provide relief to the people.

He said that the priorities of the governments have been wrong for decades due to which now the government has to spend 71 percent of its revenue on interest payments while global market conditions, local political tensions and reckless use of resources has eroded confidence in the rupee which has led to a steady decline in its value, leading to further inflation and unrest.

The business leader noted that the government's response to the rapidly changing situation and challenges has been insufficient, which has exacerbated the economic woes.

Mian Zahid Hussain said that...