PRIME Minister Shehbaz Sharif stressed taking tough decisions necessary to revive Pakistan’s economy, prioritising national interest over politics to save the country from bankruptcy. During a meeting in Islamabad on Thursday with members of the National and Provincial Assemblies from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), he expressed gratitude for divine blessings in steering the economy towards improvement, emphasizing the government’s commitment to the development of K-P, particularly the merged districts.
As the Prime Minister was expressing optimism that the tough decisions initiated by his government were leading to an improved economic situation, the Gallup Business Confidence Index report says business owners have roundly criticized Shehbaz Sharif over the management of the economy, as they become more pessimistic about their future because of continued political turmoil and the new tax-heavy budget. A sweeping majority of businessmen, 85 per cent, do not consider the government’s new financial plan as a “good budget”, the survey said. The score for the current business situation, future business situation and direction of the country declined by four to 10 per cent, with members of the business community expressing serious concerns over heavy taxation, back-breaking inflation, power outages and increasing cost of doing business. The survey should serve as an eye-opener for the policy-makers as it shows a reversal of the general impression that the PML(N) governments are more business friendly. There is no doubt that the PML(N) government, during its tenures before and after the general election 2024 took unprecedented harsh decisions in a bid to save the country from default and succeeded. However, the tough measures were imposed at the instance of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the assumption that these would help improve the overall economic conditions but there is hardly any indication that this has happened or is going to happen in short or medium terms. A case in point is the lop-sided policy pursued by the Government to address challenges facing the power sector. Regrettably, instead of focusing on the real factors behind the poor state of affairs in the energy sector, the Government resorted to the same old policy of revising power tariff repeatedly creating untold miseries for households, farmers, industrialists and businessmen. There are clear indications that millions have been pushed to the verge of virtual starvation as they find it difficult to pay hefty bills, which surpass their total family income in a month. The remarks made by Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz at the inauguration ceremony of the Punjab Socio-Economic Registry reveal that this is also known to the rulers as she remarked “it was sad that many of the 13 crore residents cannot afford paying their electricity bills”. As for real factors, the Prime Minister himself referred to the one during his interaction with law-makers from KP emphasizing the need for putting an end to the power theft. The successive governments have miserably failed to devise any effective strategy to stop theft and make those pay their bills, who are defaulting for the last 15 years. Similarly, the Government is also paying lip-service to the dire need of promoting solar energy that offers a way out to mitigate sufferings of the power consumers. Line losses and the issue of capacity payments to IPPs also need to be addressed squarely to provide relief to the masses besides a focus on hydel power generation and an integrated plan to upgrade transmission and distribution systems. We have also been pointing out in these columns that businesses are shifting abroad in the face of heavy taxation but the budget for the current financial year has added more burden on the existing tax-payers and increased the cost of doing business further. It is time that instead of forming this or that committee and commission, the Government shows the needed courage to take genuine tough measures to bring evaders in the tax net; address theft, line losses and IPPs issue; provide liberal incentives to promote agriculture, IT and telecom sectors; and rationalize tax the system
