PM Khan calls for comprehensive plan to resolve taxation issues, facilitate investors
Prime Minister Imran Khan, while chairing a meeting on ease of doing businesses, issued directives for the preparation of a comprehensive plan to simplify procedures related to government approvals. He called for addressing the taxation issues and taking measures to facilitate investors and businesses, Radio Pakistan reported.
PM Khan was chairing a meeting on Thursday to review the progress of improving the ease of doing business and creating an enabling environment to facilitate the conversion of local and foreign investors' interests into actual investments.
During the meeting, it was decided that the premier would chair a review meeting on the 'ease of doing business in the country' every month.
Board of Investment (BoI) Chairman Haroon Sharif briefed the meeting that efforts were being done to revive the confidence of the private sector in government policies and put in place a framework to facilitate the business community.
According to the report, the BoI chairman said the board was working as an "agent of change" to facilitate business transactions, remove impediments in the way of the materialisation of investors' interests into actual investments and for the "smooth functioning" of businesses in the country.
According to Radio Pakistan, Sharif also briefed PM Khan on various issues that were being faced by the business community including taxation, access to finance, regulation, policy issues and "red-tapism".
Sharif said that the BoI was actively working with the provincial governments and the relevant ministries to remove barriers in the way of establishing Special Economic Zones (SEZ).
He further informed the premier about the 'Naya Pakistan Diaspora Fund' which was being set up to promote Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and rural development in the key areas of education, health, and infrastructure development.
The BoI chairman also shared information about the investment framework which has been structured to attract and materialise investment from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, China, Japan, and Malaysia.