. ISLAMABAD : July 24, 2022: Mian Akram Farid, Chief of Employers Federation of Pakistan, Islamabad Chapter, has called upon the government to take emergency measures to control the economic situation of the country.
Addressing a meeting of businessmen , Mian Akram Farid demanded of the government to lock the rate of dollar for materials for industries, the Prime Minister should pay special attention to this issue and give special instructions to the State Bank of Pakistan to lock the rate of dollars for materials for industries.
He said billion of dollars’ worth of materials were lying at the port of industries and the buyers wee not picking them up.
Mian Akram Farid added this situation will make the road material expensive which will increase the cost of production, and added to the burden of the industries which were already difficult to run .
He said the on-going situation will create a storm of unemployment. He demanded that the government should pay special attentio to solve this problem. He said the increase in the interest rate by the State Bank should be reversed immediately. .Mian Akram Farid said that the percentage in Malaysia is 3.5% in Indonesia, 3.7% in China, 4.75% in Bangladesh and 4.9% in India, but the interest rate in Pakistan is 15% which is very high.
He said that at such high interest rates, it is not possible for the private sector to take loans from banks to promote business and investment. He said that such a huge increase in the policy interest rate will prove disastrous for the industrial sector and the SME sector because these sectors need cheap loans for growth and expansion, while the huge increase in the interest rate will increase the lending of banks.He argued that it has become very expensive. He urged the government to intervene and persuade the State Bank to withdraw its decision immediately to save the private sector from further problems.
“Keeping aside the economic situation of the country, to control the IMF and the dollar, we have to come towards the economy and create a consensus so that the country can be taken out of the current economic crisis”, he said.
Mian Akram Farid further said that if the situation of uncertainty continues, more problems will arise and then nobody will be able to control the situation. He said that an economically stable Pakistan will be independent in decision making and when All political parties agree on an independent and stable Pakistan, so they have to transcend political commitment to create a consensus for economic stability to bring the country out of economic crisis and uncertainty, he said. In the budget for the year 2022-23, legal loopholes regarding income tax should be removed and stakeholders should be consulted for policy making. That the imposition of deemed rental income tax has increased the uncertainty. He urged the government to review it immediately as the tax has stalled commercial activities in the country.
Being a core part of the construction industry, real estate has more than 40 related industries. Inflation will increase due to the dollar being expensive, that the dollar has crossed all the borders of being expensive and has become 229 rupees for the first time, due to which there will be pressure on the price of everything. Petrol will become expensive again, gas bills have increased many times, the revenue of the government will also decrease drastically – the State Bank has automatically increased the interest rate without the approval of the government.
He said that due to inflation, the cost of doing business has increased many times. Chaos and frustration are spreading in the business circles, he said, adding that many industries have invested billions of dollars in the import of machinery at low mark-up rates in the last few years after getting loans from banks, due to which the growth of industries is dire.
Mian Akram Farid argued access to essential finance has become more difficult. He said that the availability of credit for the private sector in Pakistan is equivalent to seventeen percent of the GDP.