Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry Tuesday urged the State Bank of Pakistan to reduce markup rate to single digit and bring it at par with China, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh where it is 6.56, 8, 7.75 and 7.74 percent respectively.
In a joint statement, LCCI President Farooq Iftikhar, Senior Vice President Irfan Iqbal Sheikh and Vice President Mian Abuzar Shad said single digit mark up was absolutely essential for Pakistan to compete with the regional economies in the world markets. They said inflation was a matter of controlling demand and supply and if the supply chain was up to the mark, the inflation would automatically remain at comfort level. They said the existing double digit markup had already caused undue damage to the economy which would take long time to recover. They said both local and foreign investments had already nose-dived because of high cost of doing business in Pakistan, while the FDI situation in other regional economies was quite visible. They feared that if proactive, well-tailored and well consulted measures were not taken and the economy remained sliding downwards, the days were not very far when Pakistan would become a trading country instead of a manufacturing hub.
