Pakistan Business Forum (PBF) has called for the economy’s documentation to bridge the fiscal deficit. In a statement, PBF’s senior vice-president Riaz Khattak urged the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chamber of Commerce and Industry to form a high-powered budget advisory council to suggest budgetary measures – both on revenue and expenditure sides – and also share them with the forum.

He urged the government to bring undocumented and informal sectors into the formal economy to evaluate the actual size of the economy and the amount of revenue, which was out of the tax net. Riaz Khattak said the PBF’s executive committee in KP had also identified the most serious challenges that needed to be tackled in the upcoming budget. He said the undocumented or informal sectors of the economy were the main cause of structural weaknesses; and an affront to any policy-induced reforms.

The statement also quoted PBF’s KP chapter vice-chairman Malik Fareed as highlighting the widening trade deficit and noted that solid and out-of-the-box measures were needed to be taken to shrink the gap, which was continuously putting pressure on foreign reserves of the country.

He suggested industrialisation and import substitution were the solution to trade deficit, and pointed out that the Information Technology industry had the potential to bring foreign exchange, but the sector was still not fully tapped. He observed that the small and medium enterprise sector of Pakistan had improved and was producing quality products, and now was the time to support it at the government level.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk