The Government should announce the realistic economic targets for forthcoming fiscal year 2012-13 by keeping in view the ground realities to achieve sustainable development.

Rational economic targets should to be announced by the Government rather than setting unachievable targets which could fuel inflation or increase the tax burden on the common man, Yassar Sakhi Butt, President Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) has made these remarks, while having a meeting with representatives of a number of trade and industrial associations.

He said that the industry needed a continuous supply of electricity and gas to keep the units operational and to complete the export orders well within the given timeframe but only because of the shortage of electricity and gas the exports were not up to the mark. Therefore, Government needs to build the confidence of businessmen by ensuring supply of basic ingredients that were required to pull the wheel of economy in coming FY 2012-13, he emphasized.

Keeping in view the depressive economic situation in the country, ICCI President said that the Government should not make heavy borrowing in forthcoming fiscal year to bridge current budget deficit of more than 6 percent of GDP as it would lead to increase in inflation manifold, thus rendering all Pakistani merchandise uncompetitive in the global marketplace due to high input cost.

Yassar Sakhi Butt said that the business community’s confidence in the budget-making process is very low because of far greater influence of IMF and multilateral development banks in setting priorities for our federal budget. He said that Government should set realistic revenue collection targets in line with prevalent economic conditions after consulting with private sector stakeholders.

He said that the Government should fulfill its development spending commitment for infrastructure, education and healthcare set at Rs.730 billion rupees in the last year budget before announcing and making another improbable target.

ICCI President said that the Government should focus on cutting wasteful current expenditure and improve the transparency of public spending to promote confidence among tax payers.