Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) President Khalid Iqbal Malik advised Capital Development Authority (CDA) to prioritise the improvement of basic infrastructure in markets including parking facilities, roads, footpaths, street lights, sewerage system and other amenities.
During a meeting with CDA Directors on Thursday, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) President Khalid Iqbal Malik said that due to lack of parking and other facilities, markets sales have been reduced by 50 per cent.
He was talking to Municipal Administration Director Ali Sufian, Roads & Markets Maintenance Director Khalid Asif, Streetlights Director Altaf Khan and Director Sanitation and Sewerage Sardar Khan Zimrii of CDA; who visited ICCI to discuss the issues and find out their optimum solutions in consultation with business community.
Representatives of various local markets were also present at the occasion.
Khalid Iqbal Malik said that Aamir Ali Ahmed, former member administration CDA, was very cooperative with business community in resolving issues and called upon the government to bring him back to CDA as his presence in the civic body would help in addressing issues of trade and industry.
He said that all markets of the federal capital were facing serious issues due to which business activities were suffering. He said it was high time that CDA should pay more attention to markets that were generating a lot of revenue for the national exchequer.
He was of the view that the trade license fee for shops in Islamabad was four times higher than other municipalities and urged that CDA should reduce it to Rs1,000/ per trade license for small shops.
He said that Hamza Shafqaat, former director municipal administration CDA, in a meeting with ICCI, had agreed to fix Rs60 per sq yds as board tax for shops and stressed that CDA should approve this rate that would improve its revenue.
Speaking at the occasion, Municipal Administration Director Ali Sufian, Roads & Markets Maintenance Director Khalid Asif, Streetlights Director Altaf Khan and Sanitation and Sewerage Director Sardar Khan Zimrii of CDA assured that the ICCI suggestions for reducing trade license fee and board tax would be taken up with CDA Management for consideration.
They said that all possible efforts would be made to address the highlighted issues in order to facilitate the growth of business activities. It was agreed that ICCI and CDA would nominate focal persons to coordinate for resolving issues of business community.
