Mardan   -   Senior Vice President of Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) Suleman Chawla on Tuesday said that the government will have to take tough decisions to stabilise the economy.

Talking to a group of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa journalists during a visit to the FPCCI office, he said, “It is need of the hour that we should make a charter of economy and every government should follow it.” Governance and Policy Project (GPP) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa representative Atif Yousafzai and senior journalist and former chairman of Pakistan Electronic Media Authority (PEMRA) Absar Alam were also present on the occasion.

Suleman Chawla said that there are 86 lakh commercial and industrial electricity connections in the country, however 8 lakh people are paying sales tax while 5 lakh businessmen are connected with the tax network. He said that it is need of the hour that the government should include all commercial and industrial connection users in the tax network.

He argued that the government should also ban import of non-essential items. The government, he said, should also ban import of vehicles, mobiles phones, cosmetics and other things. He said that through this way local things will gain importance.

Suleman Chawla said that the government should make long and short-term policies and also give attention toward IT. He further said that agriculture should be divided into different areas for different crops.

He said that FPCCI, established in 1950, has advocated and voiced the collective opinion, concern and aspiration of the private sector and offered helpful advice and solid assistance to the government in its efforts to promote exports, encourage foreign investment and stimulate economic activities in the country. The FPCCI, he said, is playing an active role in promoting economic activities as well as identifying problems of trade and industry, services, investments, environment and safeguarding the interest of the private sector through constant dialogue with the government.