Business forum calls for policy to take economy above $1tr

Official says amnesty schemes no solution to the issue

LAHORE: The real task of the government is to eliminate parallel economy, which is equal to the documented economy of around $315 billion, said All Pakistan Business Forum (APBF) Patron-In-Chief Haroon Khawaja, stressing that policy should focus more on increasing the size of the documented economy to over $1 trillion.

Addressing the national board of APBF in an interactive session on ‘current economic challenges and solutions’, Khawaja said that documenting the economy is not possible through temporary amnesty schemes.

He said it can be done through reforms in bureaucracy, especially in the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), by replacing it with an independent institution that can effectively enforce tax laws and strictly deal with smuggling, customs duty evasion and black money.

Our civil service system did not adapt to the changed circumstances, and remained frozen and unresponsive to the people’s needs and aspirations, he added.

Replying to a query, the APBF chief observed that Pakistan’s narrow revenue base is fast becoming a monumental challenge as all preceding governments have failed to increase both tax and non-tax revenue. As a result, the economy continues to suffer on all fronts.

He said that amnesty schemes never worked in the past and without plugging the loopholes black economy will continue to appear, and the future government will continue to bring more amnesty schemes. 

Published in The Express Tribune, June 4^th, 2019.

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