RAWALPINDI: All Pakistan Chambers Presidents’ Conference International (APCPCI) urged the government to constitute a separate China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) cell in all the Federal departments to facilitate the businessmen and foreign/domestic investors who intend to invest under CPEC regime. One window operation for the investors should be introduced to cater out the problems of the businessmen and facilitate the processes in an efficient manner under the proposed board. Addressing the APCPC’s concluding session at Gwadar, President of Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI) Zahid Latif Khan urged government that Gwadar region should be facilitated with efficient connectivity with other parts of the country which Includes air links, railways, marine and double sided roads to connect the surrounding cities.
He also proposed that Special Economic Zones (SEZ) should be prioritized in the remote areas of Sindh, Punjab, KPK, Balochistan and AJK and there should preferably be sizeable percentage of hiring local manpower into all the projects of that specific area.
While commenting on taxation, Zahid Latif Khan said tax rate should be rationalized and widened and pointed out that the business community of Pakistan believes that taxation system for small and medium sized business shall be fundamentally reengineered and simplified with the concept of the “Pay as you go” in simplified categorized.
The RCCI president said Tax rate should be brought down to 15 percent and focus should be on expansion of tax net. Interprovincial sales tax adjustment should be facilitated while the rate of sales tax should be brought to one digit. He opined that withholding tax deduction on cash withdrawal of Tax payers be abolished while it may continue for non-tax payers. Tax Amnesty Schemes should be abolished and in case is it is to apply then it may not deal with the repeat cases.
The conference urged that government should eradicate the corruption elements and develop a culture without harassment by the Government departments.
The two-day 10th APCPC moot adopted joint declaration with an aim to promote business and trade activities throughout the country as without a stable economy the goal of self sufficiency could not be achieved.
The APCPCI, hosted by RCCI, adopted five points agenda including focus on CPEC and decrease the ratio of Sales Tax to single digit, increase tax net, tax base, removal of Discretionary powers given to the commissioners, ease of doing business, skill development and more connectivity to Gwadar.
The RCCI Chief said that its an honor and legacy for RCCI that it has been organizing this event for the last nine years on regular basis. This time we picked Gawadar as event venue so that business community can see the development on the ground and get awareness and future aspects of CPEC.
The conference was attended by key government dignitaries including Minister of State for Finance, Rana Muhammad Afzal Khan, National Security Adviser Lieutenant General (retired) Nasser Khan Janjua, and representatives from more than 40 chambers of Commerce across Pakistan, Vice President Khalid Farooq Qazi, Group Leader Suhail Altaf former presidents, members of the executive committee, representatives from Gwadar Port and Chamber of Commerce and a large of traders and industrialists.
