Punjab to suffer Rs85b losses in case of shutdown

The Punjab government on Saturday said that the province could suffer losses worth more than Rs85 billion in case of a shutdown.

“On aggregate, if the province shuts down then business activities to the tune of over Rs85 billion suffer directly… people suffer due to blocked farm to market access,” a spokesperson for the provincial government was quoted as saying in a statement.

“Farmers’ income suffer while public spend more due to shortage of food,” it added.

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Elaborating on the province’s contribution to the national economy, the spokesperson said that on average, the Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) collects taxes worth Rs24 billion per day and out of that approximately Rs10 billion are collected from Punjab alone.

Services are 60 per cent of the GDP and Punjab’s contribution within the sector is 50%, the spokesperson said, adding that services worth over Rs42 billion are produced in Punjab per day.

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“Exports and imports are more than $100 billion per year. Punjab, being the production and consumption hub of Pakistan, has more than 60% share in external trade. If Punjab shuts down for a day more than Rs28 billion worth of trades would suffer,” it read.

“Only exports to Europe are approximately $9 billion, which is 38% of the total exports,” it read, “Punjab is known for manufacturing, it has more than 50% shares in total manufacturing. On average, Punjab factories produce more than Rs13 billion worth of goods.”