ISLAMABAD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) deserves appreciation for convening a two-day All Pakistan Chambers Presidents Conference, which was attended, among others, by over seventy Presidents of different chambers, ambassadors of some friendly countries and representatives of the business community. The ideas and proposals floated during speeches, discussions and resolutions of the conference can surely help overcome economic and financial woes of the country provided these are given due consideration by the planners and decision-makers.
The conference has recommended a review of agreements with IPPs and proposed imposition of 30% tax on bank deposits of non-filers instead of increasing tax burden on the existing tax-payers. President of ICCI Zafar Bakhtawari emphasized the need for promoting trade with regional countries and posting of business leaders as trade counsellors in foreign missions assigning them targets to achieve in a given timeframe. Given the potential benefits of these and similar other proposals emanating from the leadership of the business community, it would have been prudent if these were presented to the Government either before presentation of the budget or immediately after its announcement in the National Assembly. However, it is never late to mend and the Government should consider them for implementation as the crisis in the power sector cannot be mitigated without addressing the issue of uncalled for payments to IPPs in respect of so-called capacity charges. Similarly, there is logic in the proposal to impose a tax on untaxed deposits of non-filers as this has the potential to generate three times more revenue than the Government envisages through taxation proposals in the new budget.
