General amnesty scheme important to enhance economic activities: Ishtiaq Baig

KARACHI: Ishtiaq Baig, vice president of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), has appealed to the Pakistan government and the Opposition to grant a one-time general amnesty scheme through which the capital invested outside Pakistan—because of terrorism and worsened law and order in the past—can be brought back. This step will also benefit the government.

The FPCCI vice president further said that the Pakistani businessmen were constrained to take their capital outside Pakistan mainly due to terrorism and worsening law and order in Karachi few years ago. He added: “An amount of 6 to 8 billion dollars was invested by Pakistanis in Dubai real estate in the past. However, the circumstances have now been considerably better and the law and order situation has improved drastically; hence, these Pakistanis are willing to bring back their capital through official channels in Pakistan which can be beneficial for investments in Pakistan.”

He informed that several countries have successfully introduced the general amnesty scheme in the past. He said: “The Indonesian government has earned $100 billion due to the general amnesty scheme announced few years ago. The general amnesty scheme has been very successful in countries like South Africa, Russia, India and some other European countries.”

The FPCCI vice president said: “An estimated $200 billion of Pakistani businessmen’s unofficial money are lying in foreign banks; however, due to strict banking laws in the world and exchange of information between different countries it is becoming difficult day by day to keep this unofficial money in foreign countries. In this scenario, the benefits of the above-proposed scheme would incentivise or attract the Pakistanis to bring their assets back to their homeland through official channels and play their due role in the mainstream economic activities, which would ultimately boost the economic activities in the country.”

“According to prominent economists approximately $25-30 billion will return to Pakistan through which the government will earn around $300 million in revenues. Hence, the country will not be requiring loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The proposed scheme also has the support of the FPCCI.”

During a recent meeting with Commerce Minister Pervaiz Malik, Ishtiaq Baig identified and discussed the benefits of this scheme in Islamabad. He also requested the Opposition to join hands about the scheme for the best interest of the country.