Smeda starts consultation for budget proposals

LAHORE: The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (Smeda) has initiated a nationwide consultation process to solicit inputs for the Federal Budget 2017/18 by approaching around 250 SME stakeholders, including SMEs, chambers of commerce and industry, trade associations and sector development companies.

The Smeda officials said the stakeholders have been asked to send their recommendations by the end of the current month regarding taxation tariff, regulatory procedures and any other issue that may limit the SME progress. The received budget recommendations will be submitted to the Ministry of Industries and Production (MoI&P), Ministry of Finance (MoF) and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for incorporation in the Federal Budget 2017/18.

Describing significance of the policy environment, SMEDA CEO Sher Ayub said that the federal budget and trade policy have become the most important policies, reshaping the business environment landscape in instantaneous terms in Pakistan. Therefore, it is now an established fact that jointly these two policies most profoundly affect SMEs and their growth pattern, he said, adding that there has been an increased acknowledgement of the role of SMEs in the economy, yet there remains the lack of focus on SMEs in allocating resources and awarding incentives, which needs to be addressed prudently in the light of the stakeholders’ aspirations.

The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority CEO said his organisation, being the apex SME development body, serves as a bridge between the SME sector and the government.

In its efforts to support SME development in the country, various policy advocacy activities have been undertaken for the development of conducive business environment based on sound policy measures to accelerate SME growth, he added. Ayub was confident that the current consultations with stakeholders will provide solid information to Smeda for advocating the cause of SME development.

He said Smeda before sending the budget recommendations to the government would conduct pre-budget consultative workshops in all the four provinces of Pakistan, in which the recommendations received from 250 trade bodies would be finalised. Free economic analysts have observed that the financial policies generally tend to favour large-scale industry by allocating significant portion of development funds and fiscal incentives to the large-scale businesses; therefore, Smeda has planned to advocate the SME case convincingly through the Ministry of Industries and Production, Ayub added.