Body formed to finalize proposals for incentivising retail sector

F.P. Report

ISLAMABAD: Advisor to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh on Thursday constituted a five-member committee for finalizing proposals for providing relief to retail sector in the wake of prevailing situation.

The committee, which includes senior officials from Finance Division and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) as its members, would hold meetings with representatives of the retail sector for finalization of the proposals, said a press statement issued by the Finance Ministry.

The decision to set up the committee was taken by the Advisor while chairing a video conference, arranged at the Finance Division 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 was contributing 18 per cent to the GDP besides employing 16 per cent of the labour force.

They said that due to prevailing circumstances, they were foreseeing negative growth in current year, hence it was imperative to provide relief, particularly in taxes, to the retail sector, especially the integrated sector.

Shaikh said that the government was keen to help the retail sector and constituted a committee to further discuss and firm up proposals, put up by the representatives of Retails Association of Pakistan before the next meeting which would finalize the proposals.

He directed the committee to follow a quick-action approach to decide the mechanism of support as the government intended to alleviate the hardships being faced by the various sectors of economy.