Phony businessmen

LAHORE: It is futile to discuss the economy of the country as the decision makers’ hands are tied even in posting transfers, but it is time to expose the hypocrisy of businessmen who confer awards on bureaucracy whom they blame for wrongdoing.

A glaring example in this regard was a recent function organised by the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry at the Governor House Lahore in which top bureaucrats posted in the city were awarded trophies of Friends of LCCI.

Punjab Governor Balighur Rehman on behalf of the LCCI distributed awards to numerous bureaucrats.

They included Trade Organisation DG Riaz Ahmad, Collector Customs Appraisement Mughalpura, Saira Agha, Military Secretary to Governor Punjab Lt Col Bilal Javed, Punjab Food Authority DG Mudassar Riaz Malik, LESCO CEO Muhammad Amin (recently resigned), PBIT CEO Jalal Hassan, Rescue 1122 DG Dr Rizwan Naseer, and Punjab Horticulture Authority DG Zeeshan Javed. Earlier, LCCI office-bearers also presented a special award to Governor Punjab.

One fails to understand the purpose of conferring these awards. This could be because the persons that received these awards were above par normal bureaucrats of the country.

In this case, Lahore should be one of the best managed cities in the country which is not true. The other reason could be that these officers are more receptive to requests of LCCI, which is good if the approach is not LCCI specific but wrong if one institution is preferred over others. We know that the general populace have genuine complaints against some of these departments that are not addressed.

The businessmen should avoid pampering the bureaucrats. They are duty bound to act efficiently and according to law. Had they gone beyond the call of duty to deserve these awards?

The duplicity exhibited by businessmen in condemning the government policies and at the same time praising the concerned government officers that execute them is resented by those who favour transparency, rule of law and documentation of economy.

The LCCI is a vocal supporter of tax evading traders. It opposes the closure of shops at 8 pm that is a cruelty to workers who are not even provided minimum wage and made to work for 14 hours.

Consumers world over adjust themselves with the timings and global norm is not beyond 8 pm.

Businessmen should gear up to operate under the current extremely difficult scenario. They must be fully updated on their taxes. They should stop and condemn all malpractices particularly those that facilitate tax evasion.

They must understand that they will not grow into sustainable enterprises if they fail to pay their due taxes. The only way to scale up is to pay taxes so that they have legal resources for investment.

Pakistani businesspersons must take lessons from the Indians, who are acquiring global companies worth $20 billion annually since the last two decades by just investing 10 percent of the controlling shares.

This became possible only after the corporate sector in India recognised that paying full taxes helps companies grow. Under filers of taxes can never exploit their full growth potential.

There are numerous examples in our country where businessmen started with meagre resources but paid their due taxes honestly and are challenging big corporates in just a few decades. In fact the largest exporters in Pakistan are the ones that started small and scaled up through transparent investments.