President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF), President All Karachi Industrial Alliance (AKIA), Senior Vice Chairman of the Businessmen Panel of FPCCI and former provincial minister, MianZahidHussain on Monday said the government has broken the back of hoarders and profiteers planning another artificial crisis by lifting ban on the movement of fleet operators and goods transporters.
The provincial governments should also follow the suit and allow the food-related industry to start operations to deal a fatal blow to the unholy designs enemies of the masses, he said.
MianZahidHussain said that government should direct the Customs, Railway and district administration officials to facilitate imports and exports to save the maximum number of jobs. Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that the business community was not prepared for the destruction caused by the coronavirus, therefore, government should start bailing out all the sectors of the economy. The former minister noted that imports worth 50 billion dollars are as important as exports worth 23 billion dollars. Millions of people are linked to the import sector therefore commercial importers should also be bailed out so that they can continue their activities.
He said that bills of landings could not come from China during the month of February leading to fines by shipping companies and port authorities which should be waived while no fines or late charges should be slapped until the month of June.
The bank markup and withholding tax should be waived or at least reduced by 50 percent from February to June while customs duty for the shipments in the pipeline should be reduced by 50 percent.
