President Dr Arif Alvi has called upon the chambers of commerce and industry to motivate and convince their members to fully document their businesses for bringing transparency in the business inputs and outputs which would lead to levying of just and fair taxes.
This, he said, would increase the tax base and tax collection, minimize incidents of corruption and corrupt practices and would eventually lead to re-duced taxation on the businesses.
He said that non-documentation and lack of transparency in the busi-ness processes and resultant low tax collection com-pelled the government to resort to indirect taxation which equally hurt the poor and the rich and there-fore direct taxation needed to be enhanced with the help of the business community.
The President expressed these views while ad-dressing the Achievement Awards Ceremony organ-ized by the Sargodha Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI), at Aiwan-e-Sadr, today. President SCCI, Chaudhary Shoaib Ahmed Basra, also ad-dressed the occasion.
The President said that Pakistan was the fifth largest country in terms of population and, there-fore, it should also be the fifth most important coun-try in terms of socio-economic growth.
He added that it was possible provided the businesses encour-age their female family members to enter into busi-nesses and industry on key posts to lead the way for better participation of women.
He said that our youth bulge should be provided with high-quality skills, especially in the IT sector, our businesses need to create close linkages with the research and development institutions and Universi-ties for brining qualitative and quantitative im-provement into their goods and services and expanding their reach in the existing export markets, and exploring new export markets.
The President urged the business community to voluntarily pay due taxes which, he said, would provide liquidity to the government for improving roads, utilities and other services for the business community, thus helping the business community to further improve their business processes and be-come price competitive in the local and international markets.
He also urged the business community and the industrialists to keep social welfare at the fore-front of their business policies and to play their role in uplifting the socio-economic conditions of the people of their respective areas.
The President said that the Small and Medium Scale industries were the backbone of the country’s economy and the government should further im-prove the policy, the licensing and regulatory re-gime, and levy of just and fair taxation in close co-ordination and consultation with all the stakeholders to further improve ease of doing business to help promote this vital sector of the country on a fast-track basis. He also stressed the need to strengthen border control to curb inward and outward smug-gling of goods to protect the local industry.
The President said that industries and businesses played a key role in the progress and development of the country and the prosperity of its people.
He appreciated the industrialists and businessmen of Pakistan for achieving the highest ever export growth of 30% and achieving the export target of USD 32 billion last year.
The President commended the country’s cham-bers of commerce, especially the SCCI, for provid-ing much-needed lead
