The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) will be receiving Rs50 million from the Export Development Fund (EDF) to complete construction of Display Centre at the chamber, ICCI President Mehfooz Ilahi said in an interview with the Profit. He said that due to shortage of funds ICCI sought help from EDF 5 years back. The EDF has assured to provide Rs50 million during the current financial year. He said with the help of annual membership fees and donations, the ICCI has succeeded in constructing two floors of the display centre.
Challenging fronts
He said that due to financial constraints Capital Development Authority (CDA) has shelved the I-17 industrial area. He noted that businessmen were ready to pay money for the plots. He informed that the industrial zone was planned in I-17 but the matter got delayed due to the dispute over land price. Land owners wanted CDA to pay the total amount of land which the authority could not fulfill due to financial constraints. He observed that industry was operating 3 days a week due to the ongoing load shedding.
He said that mismanagement of the government was resulting in suffering of the industry. The government needs to reprioritise its policies and initiatives. He claimed that businesses and industry were not the government’s priority as they were shutting down due to unfavorable and anti-business policies of government.
Timely efforts could save industry
He said that a timely response by government functionaries could help save billions of rupees. According to him, most of the problems faced by businessmen occur due to the mismanagement of the government. He was of the view that lack of will of the government proves to be the main cause of the worsening environment for traders. He said that printing of notes would not curtail inflation and the circular debt.
The government was draining large amounts of resources for debt financing. Ilahi said that the government is providing electricity to domestic consumers, for whom growth was slowing down, instead of providing electricity to industry. He said that ICCI is working on a plan to end the energy crisis in the country which would later be presented to the government. He also highlighted that Iran had agreed to provide electricity to Pakistan which was a much cheaper option than rental energy.
However, if the government does not wish to purchase electricity from Iran due to foreign pressures, then it should generate energy from other sources such as coal. Talking about the Thar Coal Project, he said that if the government gives it priority like it did to the nuclear programme, energy could be generated in a short span of six months.
He said that there was a trust deficit between Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and the business community due to an uneven taxation system. He said that the trust gap between the tax payer and tax collector could only be bridged by the development of a uniform taxation system.
ICCI contributions
He said that the ICCI was planning to organise a shopping festival in September with CDA’s assistance. ICCI has managed to establish an entrepreneurship development centre at the chamber that would provide the youth with an opportunity to master their skills. Talking about the history of Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI), he informed that it was established in 1984 and was assisting traders as well as industrialists for the last 27 years. It also strives to solve the problems of the trader community with the help of government officials.
The ICCI president said that more than two thousand people were registered members of the chamber, most of them from the trader community. He said that approximately 10 thousand traders were running their businesses in different markets of the federal capital, majority of which are not a part of ICCI as yet. Regarding membership criterion of ICCI, Ilahi explained that in order to become a part of ICCI, a trader or industrialist should be a registered tax payer to the Government of Pakistan.
