April 16, 2020: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh has constituted a five-member committee including senior officials from Finance Division and the FBR to sit with representatives of the retail sector and finalise proposals for providing relief to the retail sector, in the wake of prevailing situation.
The Adviser made this decision 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 in Pakistan 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 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 said 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.
