KARACHI: President Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) Irfan Iqbal Sheikh welcomed the successful completion of first review of the staff-level agreement (SLA) with IMF pertaining to the current Standby Agreement (SBA).
Irfan Iqbal Sheikh, in a statement issued here, said that business community has stood by the government to surpass its revenue generation target despite exorbitant cost of doing business.
He reiterated FPCCI’s stance that Pakistan must embark on a tangible, pragmatic and business-friendly plan to get rid of IMF and attach preference to investment, trade and industrial collaboration with friendly countries along with institutional arrangements with international financial institutions (IFIs).
“We can generate more resources through boosting trade and industry than knocking at the doors of IMF again in April 2024 after completion of the ongoing 9-month standby agreement in March 2024,” FPCCI chief asserted and suggested the government to secure other sources of cheaper external financing from multilateral sources and IFIs like World Bank, International Finance Corporation (IFC), Asian Development Bank (ADB)and Islamic Development Bank (IDB).
The FPCCI chief also welcomed the proposed 40 percent tax on the windfall profits of the commercial banks for the years of 2021-2022 and suggested to tighten the government’s regulatory oversight over the speculative trading of dollars by the commercial banks.
The next in line should be facilitating access to finance to the business, industry and trade community through bringing down the key policy rate of the State Bank of Pakistan and the resultant rationalization of export finance scheme (EFS) and long-term financing facility (LTFF), he proposed.
Senior Vice President FPCCI Muhammad Suleman Chawla, stressed the need of confidence building measures with the business community and rationalization of the utility prices and lending rates for putting Pakistan on a relatively accelerated economic growth trajectory backed by industrialization and exports.
