Senate dislikes NAB’s interference into businessmen’s affairs

KARACHI: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) should not be allowed to take action against the business community as the businessmen and industrialists are already dealing with several other regulatory authorities, Senate Deputy Chairman Saleem Mandviwalla said on Saturday.

Mandviwalla said the NAB should keep its activities confined to public sector and politicians.

“Instead, NAB should facilitate the business community of Karachi by opening up the helpdesk at KCCI as done in Islamabad Chamber,” he said during a meeting with the office bearers of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI).

Senate deputy chief said the activities of chambers must not remain confined to budget proposals and economic policies only, but they must also participate in all the meetings and even the political activities.

He advised the business community of Karachi to bring all their issues to his notice. “The business community will have to play the lead role by participating in all the affairs of the government as they know the ground realities.” Mandviwalla said the business community should join hands with the Sindh government under public-private partnership to improve the infrastructure. He assured the participants to take up the issues of sales tax on services by indenters with the tax authorities.

Zubair Motiwala, chairman Businessmen Group said the state of infrastructure in all the industrial zones is awful.

“To improve the infrastructure of site area, PC-1 has already been approved and an amount of Rs1 billion was allocated for construction of 23 roads but to date, the development work has not started,” Motiwala said. “Dreadful state of site area can be gauged from the terrible state of Site Limited which is responsible for improving the infrastructure of the Site. Site Limited has the capacity to employ 400 individuals but around 1,700 workers have been appointed in this institution.” The industrialist said no matter how efficient the fully automated sales tax e-refund system is refunds of Rs170 billion would remain stuck up, creating severe liquidity crunch for the exporters.

“We need an even-playing field therefore the government will have look into the possibility of reintroducing the zero-rating facility which is badly needed by the exporters to stay competitive otherwise the growth being witnessed nowadays, particularly in the textile sector, will not be sustainable,” he added.

He said Pakistan has the potential to improve its exports to $100 billion “but that can only be achieved, if the business and industrial community is provided an even-playing field and practical steps are taken to ensure ease of doing business while the government must also take measures for broadening the country’s meager tax base as only 1 percent of the country’s population pays taxes”.

Anjum Nisar, former president of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry said local industries must also be given equal support as they are struggling really hard to keep their businesses alive.

Shariq Vohra, president of KCCI said the federal and provincial governments will have to give attention to the issues of Karachi and they must take steps for improving the dilapidated infrastructure of all industrial zones of Karachi particularly Site areas where the road network hardly exists.