Pakistan Business Forum (PBF) To Hold National Consultative Session For Charter Of Economy

Pakistan Business Forum (PBF) is going to held its national consultative conference to create the "national economic plan" and "charter of economy" agenda

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 1st Feb, 2023 ) :Pakistan Business Forum (PBF) is going to held its national consultative conference to create the "national economic plan" and "charter of economy" agenda.

Talking to APP here at PBF House, the PBF President Mian Usman Zulfiqar said the forum was working with business associations to draft a much-needed "Charter of Economy" to motivate political stakeholders to keep politics and economy separate as the country was facing severe economic challenges.

According to PBF President, the business community would sign the economy charter before all political parties and the government, he said and added that Charter of Economy was crucial to steer the nation out of political and socio-economic crises. Over the time, he claimed, politically motivated economic policies were to blame for the country's persistent socio-economic problems.

He stated that country's foreign reserves reached a level insufficient to cover imports for a month. He added, "We are experiencing current account and fiscal deficits, that circular debts in the power sector have reached up to Rs 2500 billion, and that exports and remittances were declining." It does not appear that the revenue target of Rs 7,470 billion had been met and all these precarious circumstances forced us to approach the IMF, he added.

PBF President Usman Zulfiqar mentioned that the country's GDP growth rate was anticipated to be 2.9 percent in fiscal year 2023. Over US $30 billion in economic losses were caused by floods. The national poverty ratio had increased from 4.5 percent to 7 percent, and the majority of the IMF-recommended measures had proven to be counterproductive.

He said the business community had since long been demanding a charter for the economy and the PBF had proposed a set of areas in which the government should to work seriously. Energy security, public finance and monetary policy management, foreign exchange management, trade and investment, national food security, and the sustainability of the agriculture sector were some of those areas, he added.

The PBF chief suggested that every successive government must strictly adhere to the Indicative Generation Capacity Plan, which aimed to achieve 90 percent self-sufficiency, in order to indigenizethe power sector. In order to guarantee affordable and long-lasting electricity, the government shouldgradually abandon cross-subsidization, adopt competitive tariffs, and privatize discos, he added.