ISLAMABAD: Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) here on Friday urged the government to rationalize the utility tariffs, petroleum prices and taxes in order to reduce the cost of doing business that would help in reviving the business activities and economic development of the country.
President ICCI Muhammad Shakeel Munir in a press statement said that due to hike in power tariffs and petroleum prices, cost of doing business increased and the business community was finding it difficult to promote business activities.
He further said that the due to devaluation of rupee against dollar make the import of industrial raw material costlier and due to these factors, the cost of doing business in Pakistan had gone up and it had become difficult for the business community to compete with regional competitors for exports. He urged that the government to focus on rationalizing tariffs and duties and promote ease of doing business to help revive the business and economic activities in the country.
Jamshaid Akhtar Sheikh, Senior Vice President ICCI said that according to the World Bank’s latest Pakistan Development Update, the share of exports in Pakistan’s GDP had declined from 16 percent in 1999 to 10 percent in 2020.
He said that the rising production cost could be one of the important factors for decline in exports and urged the government to take measures to reduce production cost in order to make local exports more competitive in the national market.
Muhammad Faheem Khan, Vice President ICCI said that the frequent increase in utility tariffs and POL prices had pushed up inflation and reduced the purchasing power of consumers, which was also causing slowdown in business activities.
He urged the government to take strong measures to bring down production cost in order to facilitate the growth of business activities.