Asad Umar, PTI’s finance minister-designate revealed an SME expansion plan which says: 3 year tax holiday – to be increased to half the rate for the next two years Easy financing Support in skill training Special tax rates for engineering, agricultural and garments value-added sector [adinserter block="3"] A thorough survey of our existing SMEs – that are doing a wonderful job at import substitution and job creation – has revealed the following: All avoid coming into the tax net All point towards bureaucracy as the main hurdle in the expansion Financing for expansion is too cumbersome to acquire The risk is too high in case the project fails [caption id="attachment_165281" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Source: Daily Pakistan[/caption] The government institutions act as extortionists Finding talented manpower is impossible There is no legal protection in case of disputes The following are the recommendations to boost the SME sector, which is the backbone of employment: Enforce the rule of law and make arbitration simple and cheap. Privatize some tax collection functions, especially toll, levy, surcharge, border imports, Value Added Digitize the economy like India and investigate every transaction beyond Rs 50,000 Let the provinces collect their own taxes – Federal government to handle GST, services, income, and tariffs. Heavily Spend on skill training at the schools – preferably freelance work online [adinserter block="8"] As President Reagan said, ‘less government is the only good government’. So, ruthlessly slash deadwood people and procedures that border on extortion and criminal neglect – and I mean at every institution. Give financial protection from total ruin to SMEs from state coffers Muscle countries around us to open up their market for our mediocre SME products, so our SMEs evolve Force the financial sector to introduce hedge funds and instruments to fund SMEs with promising innovations. Digitize the government sector; all procedures and rules have to be displayed online for all decision making to make IT platforms Our commercial councilors to facilitate difficult to import components for Value Addition inside the country. [adinserter block="4"] Make it simpler for SME owners to temporarily import super skilled manpower and pay them in US Dollars Encourage Patenting, research publications by financial rewards and punish Intellectual Property Infringements Enforce labor laws to protect vulnerable workers from blood-sucking bourgeois Hand over Mother Ship engineering complexes to wealth funds so that the hatchlings in the private sector flourish under their wings
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