FAISALABAD. Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry will continue to play its role for the redressal of genuine and legitimate interests of the business community of Faisalabad, said Rana Sikandar-e- Azam acting president FCCI.
During a meeting with a delegation of Supreme Anjuman-e- Tajran here, he said that the present government has levied multiple taxes during last 3 to 4 years that have actually crushed the business community. He paid best tribute to the bold, competent and vocal leadership of Supreme Anjuman-e- Tajran that has played its dynamic role to facilitate the business community. He termed FCCI as mother of all trade bodies and said that all these organizations should strengthen FCCI with their active participation and efforts. He also stressed the need for unity among the different trade organizations and said that it is very important to solve their problems without any unnecessary delay. He asked the trade bodies to identify civic as well as their trade specific problems so that Mayor Faisalabad Municipal Corporation (FMC) could be invited to discuss and resolve their problems.
Appreciating the role of Supreme Anjuman-e- Tanjran, he said that it has fought their case and due to its continuous efforts, the case of increase in license fee has been deferred. Similarly they also negotiated with the PHA officials and got exempted from publicity tax one board of each shop in the city.
Former president Engineer Suhail Bin Rashid said that political instability and taxes have further aggravated the economic situation of the country. He underlined the importance of SME sector in the overall development of any economy and said that during his tenure as president he FCCI, he had started sending trade delegations to deferent potential markets of the world. Small businessmen and exporters were given due preference for the selection of delegates and now this decision is yielding positive results in the form of enhanced exports.
He said that problems of business community are still unsolved despite of their repeated meetings with concern officials. “The main reason of this dismally poor result is lack of homework by the businessman”, he said and added that businessmen should first identify their core issues along with workable solutions to make these meetings arranged by FCCI productive and result oriented.
Haji Muhammad Aslam Bhalli Patron Supreme Anjuman-e-Tajran was critical of the role of government departments and organizations and said that they are creating problems instead of facilitating them. He alleged that Punjab Food Authority is only extorting money in the garb of raids. However, we had repeated meetings with concern officials and now a positive change in their attitude is visible. He also condemned the raids on the cloth shops and said that FBR always calculate profits of the businessmen but never considered loss that has forced many shopkeepers to close down their shops and change their business. He also presented a resolution to condemn the raids which was adopted unanimously by the house. He demanded that this practice should be stopped immediately otherwise they will be forced to resist such acts. The function was also attended by Chaudhary Muhammad Azhar, Mr. Ayub Aslam Munj, Javaid Zafar and Rana Ikram Ullah.
