"Some concessions must be announced in the coming financial budget for those people who regularly pay taxes," he urged, saying Pakistan's economy needs serious reforms for its stability. He said finance ministry has remained unable to do it for last many years due to which rupee has come under immense pressure as it alarmingly devalued against one dollar jumping up to five rupees.
Mian Anjum said short-term measures such as borrowing from international market in order to fill the gap of foreign reserves don't pay the required dividend anymore. He called for concrete and serious steps for the revival of the country's economic indicators and its economic outlook.
He advised the government to take private sector on board and involve it in the policymaking process. He suggested Federal Board of Revenue must be run by an independent board of directors, comprising professionals.
BMP chairman made these remarks due to the present low level of tax collections and a keen desire by representatives of the business community to raise them with a view to enable government to meet its total expenditures and avoid large fiscal deficits. He said these evils must be curbed at all cost to ensure equity in taxation and realisation of full potential of the country's resources.
Anjum Nisar said leakages about which the BMP is talking about have nothing to do with the status of the FBR but with its working and efficiency and the willingness of the people at the helm of affairs to let the organisation function in a free and fair manner.
He further said the era of 1960s witnessed very rapid and targeted economic growth and development. He said Gross domestic product dramatically touched double digits and the country emerged as a potential global economic power. He said Pakistan was enjoying better economic indicators as compared to China and India in the region and many countries across the globe.
BMP chairman said one of the prominent features of that era was proactive engagement of private sector and industry that enhanced coordination and trust among the stakeholders and investment became talk of the town.
BMP secretary general (Federal) Ahmad Jawad urged the prime minister to personally intervene and announce to provide gas and electricity relief to industries at the same rate across the country which is applied in our neighbouring countries in order to reduce cost of doing business. He said if industries would flourish, the country's economy and exports would also come on a par with other countries. He said Pakistan's efforts seem to be more tilted towards revolution instead of reforms. Jawad said political economy is more dependent on external factors than internal one. He said now, Pakistan is again following historical and revolutionary steps for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), not reformative. He said for five years, we are celebrating CPEC as a success story. No doubt, CPEC is a transformative initiative. It is also envisioned it will drastically reduce poverty. However, to realise the perceived objectives, it requires systematic and comprehensive reforms. Pakistan needs to re-orient its institutional setup in a step-by-step manner. It is a well-known fact that CPEC will enhance the volume of economy, trade and industrial development.
"Current capacity of institutions will not be able to bear the extra burden. Capacity and skills of these institutions are not on a par with the required volume," he alerted.
BMP secretary general (Federal) said as CPEC is a multifaceted investment, similarly the country needs multifaceted agenda and programme of reforms.
He referred the IMF already warned Pakistan's foreign exchange liabilities were $13.5 billion as against its gross official reserves of $12.8 billion as of February 14, 2018, leaving it with negative $724 million as reserves. On the other hand, the outstanding tax refund claims are over Rs 300 billion from the FBR side, although the government says the amount is only Rs 150 billion against which it has issued Refund Payment Orders. It is not yet ready to acknowledge the un-reconciled refund claims. He said, to overcome these shocks, we need to devise long and medium term policy in order to enhance exports, enhance the capacity of our institutions and restructure TDAP including our international trade missions. Ahmad Jawad warned that failure to do so would bring more depreciation of our rupee in the coming months.