In a meeting with leading exporters and businessmen of the country, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif bespoke a paradigm shift in the government policy to arrest the falling exports and sought suggestions and recommendations from the business community to chalk out a strategic trade policy framework for the promotion of trade and industry in the country. The country is facing shortage of electricity and financial indiscipline, not because of any ill-intention on the part of the government, but due to lack of capacity of the implementation machinery. Some of the demands by businessmen are genuine such as early release of refund claims, but pressuring the government to opt for so-called “rationalization of the Pakistani rupee” will further ditch the country into economic woes. The national currency has been eroded to the extent that it has lost strength against even the Bangladeshi taka and Thai bhat. However, the exporters demand for a development of mechanism to avoid delayed release of funds needs to be heard.
The businessmen want the government to rationalize taxes on textile industry and revision of electricity tariff to minimize the cost of production to make Pakistani products competitive in the international market. The government should also discourage wholesale dumping of Indian and Chinese goods and there is a need to impose anti-dumping on semi-finished textile products from the neighbouring countries. As we have earlier mentioned in our editorials, the cottage and agriculture sectors of Pakistan are well established and need the government support to introduce indigenous products in the world market. The government should encourage local and foreign investment to expand the volume of economy and not the volume of taxes from the existing taxpayers. The government will have to search causes and effects, which led to stagnation of exports as compared to the countries in the region.
The world is heading toward possible recession as many industrial countries such as China, Japan and Korea are facing economic slowdown, but Pakistani products have the chances to fill the vacuum by penetrating in the international market. No doubt various mega projects have been launched to generate electricity and develop infrastructure, a comprehensive package to revive industrial activities is also need of the hour. The business community should also find black sheep within its ranks who wants to avail all the utility services free of cost but does not want to pay taxes. A better coordination between official machinery and business community is necessary to identify the troubling areas hindering exports and devise a coordinated strategy for the growth of the economy.
