Businessmen demand representation in government bodies

LAHORE: The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has urged the government to ensure adequate representation of the private sector in all important bodies, a statement said on Monday.

“Only public-private partnership can make a breakthrough on the economic front. Therefore, the government should take the business community onboard on all economic matters and ensure its representation in government departments”, LCCI president Mian Nauman Kabir said.

Kabir said that being the major stakeholder, the business community should have representation in all important bodies like Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra), Indus River System Authority (Irsa) or the exports promotion related divisions, but the situation was otherwise.

He said that without the participation of the main stakeholder, how conducive policies for trade and industry could be formulated. “Business community can be the most powerful force of the government but for this, the present regime should take it on board and treat it as a partner,” he said.

LCCI president said that petroleum, oil and lubricants (POL) prices should not be an option to overcome the trade deficit or to bear the huge non-productive expenditure of the state. Likewise, resources like water should not be sacrificed to the political motives of a few people.

The POL is a major raw material and unjustified raises in its prices have increased the cost of doing business, adding that this issue could be controlled if the business community has at least 50 per cent representation in Ogra.

Kabir said that due representation of private sector in the public sector bodies would help promote knowledge-based economy, export promotion, increase in tax-to-GDP ratio, besides overcoming inefficiency of entities, brain-drain, shortage of skilled human resources and low industrial production etc.

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