LAHORE: The Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI) has urged the Punjab government to spend a part of development fund to the markets of city where traders are doing business in difficult conditions.
In a statement issued here, the LCCI President Sheikh Muhammad Arshad said that traders should be provided good business atmosphere as they are backbone of the economy and major source of revenue for the government. He said that around the globe, traders are being considered major force for economic growth and being facilitated to the maximum but here situation is quite different.
He said that one hand traders are facing mistreatment by the FBR, Custom Intelligence, Anti-Smuggling, EOBI and Labour Department etc while at the other lack of facilities, haphazard traffic and unavailability of parking facilities have made them hostage. Therefore, it is a must to shift focus of development budget towards the markets to ensure good atmosphere for the trading community.
Sheikh Muhammad also called to reduce the interference of government departments in the business activities saying that the business community needs hand-holding by the government to overcome the challenges but departments like FBR, Labour, EOBI are creating more troubles for the business community.
He said that all government departments should give honour to the taxpayers who are backbone of the economy. He said that it would be very hard to give expansion to the tax net if FBR and other departments continue to squeeze the existing taxpayers. It would also be hard to achieve the huge revenue target set for the financial year 2016-17 if business community is not given due facilities and respect.
The LCCI president said there is a dire need that all concerned department should act as facilitator to the business community but unfortunately situation is quite different. He said that measures, being taken on the name of controlling smuggling, are actually affecting those traders who are doing their businesses legally. He said that reportedly intelligence officials establish their own check posts out of the markets, stops all consignments and harass the traders without any solid reason. He said that there is a dire need to encourage the honest businessmen through stopping raids on business premises.
