FINANCE Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb on Wednesday acknowledged that some multinational companies have left Pakistan due to ‘high taxes and energy costs’, but called on them to revise their business models, aligning them with the ‘modern world’.
Addressing the Pakistan Policy Dialogue, hosted by Policy Research & Advisory Council (PRAC), in Islamabad, he said there are firms that are leaving Pakistan, which is true, and we must acknowledge if taxation is high, energy cost is high or financing cost, those have been real issues.
There have been persistent reports that some multinational companies were leaving the country, finding it difficult to operate due to high cost of doing business. Apart from companies like Procter & Gamble, Eli Lilly, Shell, Microsoft, Uber and Yamaha, scores of companies shifted their offices to Gulf countries and other destinations in the face of excessive taxation. No doubt, during this period some companies also entered the country as has also been highlighted by the Minister yet issues of higher taxation and inhibitive energy tariff cannot be brushed aside as such because local investors too have long been demanding genuine measures to reduce the cost of doing business. The growth that the Minister seeks would not come in a void and tangible steps will have to be taken to attract investment and move towards solid industrialisation.
