LAHORE: Founders Group of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry (lCCI) will not only continue efforts for economic boost and to resolve the challenges being faced by the business community but will also help government by giving viable solutions of the economic ills.
This was stated by the leadership of LCCI Founders Group in its election meeting here at Gymkhana Club. Senior leader Mian Muhammad Ashraf presided-over the meeting which was also attended by Iftikhar Ali Malik, Syed Mohsin Raza Bukhari, Mian Misbah-ur-Rehman, Sheikh Muhammad Asif, Shahid Hassan Sheikh, Mian Muzaffar Ali, Farooq Iftikhar, Ijaz A. Mumtaz, Abdul Basit and dozens of trade & industrial association’s representatives were present in the meeting.
On the occasion, a joint strategy evolved for the LCCI forthcoming election while trade, industry and economy related various issues came under discussion.
Mian Muhammad Ashraf said that LCCI Founders Group had always led from front and its leaders like Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and Chief Minister Punjab Mian Shahbaz Sharif are now serving the nation. He said that LCCI Founders Group will continue to play a meaningful and collective role for the cause of business community and the economy.
He said the business community was ready to do everything to make the country a hub of business and economic activities but need was to provide them a good business atmosphere. Mian Muhammad Ashraf said that energy demand was growing with every passing day. Though the government was working in energy sector effectively and a number of power projects are in the pipeline but at the same time it was the duty of the government to develop alternate means of electricity generation. If some measures would have taken a decade ago, the situation would have been different today, they added.
The leaders of LCCI Founders Group said that government should take immediate measures to eliminate circular debt so that the gap between demand and supply could be curtailed. Secondly, line losses and power theft should be controlled. Above all, the government should focus on construction of water reservoirs. Amongst the alternate sources of energy biomass shows tremendous potential. The total capacity in biomass was over 22000 MW in Pakistan to which little technical training was required to bring this resource in use. Alternate Energy Board must concentrate on it to establish these units in villages.
Mian Muhammad Ashraf said that coal, hydropower and biomass can produce energy at a flat rate of less than Rs 5 per unit for next twenty years, helping manufacturing industry to grow unabated with no taxation on inputs and availability of technically better quality workforce. He suggested that the state should withdraw all profiteering and taxation from energy sector.
LCCI Founders Group leaders also endorsed the business community demand for bringing down the rate of general sales tax to single digit as the high rate of GST in vogue in the country was discouraging the people from coming into the tax net. All local chambers could help the state in recovering and documenting economy so that only direct taxes should be levied and indirect taxation should be removed.
Earlier, the Almas Hyder and Nasir Saeed Saeed presented their performance which was hailed by the participants.
