By Muhammad Luqman
Pakistan government has constituted a five-member committee to prepare a package of incentives for country’s retail sector that has been badly been affected by the continuing lockdown clamped across the South Asian country to check the spread of Coronavirus epidemic.
The committee formed by the Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, includes senior officials from Finance Division and the FBR. The body will hold meetings with representatives of the retail sector and finalise proposals for providing relief to the retail sector.
The Adviser made this decision while chairing a video conference arranged at the Finance Division in the capital, Islamabad with the representatives and office-bearers of Retails Association of Pakistan to discuss the problems faced by the sector and their possible solutions.
The Association representatives said that the retail sector in Pakistan was contributing 18 per cent to the GDP besides employing 16 per cent of the labour force. They said, due to prevailing circumstances they are foreseeing negative growth in current year, hence it was imperative to provide relief, particularly in taxes, to the retail sector, especially the integrated sector.
Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh assured the retailers that the government was keen to help the retail sector and constituted a committee to further discuss and firm up proposals offered by the representatives of Retails Association of Pakistan before the next meeting which would finalise the proposals. He directed the committee to follow a quick-action approach to decide the mechanism of support as the government wanted to alleviate the hardships being faced by the various sectors of economy.
