Business Community of South Punjab disapproved the Monetary Policy

MULTAN, March 17th: The Business Community of South Punjab has criticised the recent reduction of merely 75 basic points in the mark-up rate declared by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and said this would push up the cost of goods and slow down the pace of exports.President of Multan Chamber of Commerce & Industry Sheikh Fazal Elahi, Senior Vice President Mian Rashid Iqbal said that all countries have slashed their interest rate considerably in current situation when Corona virus had destroyed the world's economy.
 Chairman of Multan Dry Port Trust,Ex-President of MCCI and DGCCI Khawaja Jalaluddin Roomi has urgwed the Government to review its monetary policy and reduce the at least 300 basic points in monetary policy.Roomi  expressed serious concern over the SBP's policy rate which is at the highest in the region and in this state of monetary economy industry cannot survive and to compete in the international market is absolutely impossible.Policy rate in India is 5.15 percent, China 4.35 percent, Sri Lanka 8.0 percent, Malaysia 3.0 percent, Thailand 1.25 percent, and Indonesia 6.5 percent while policy rate in Pakistan is 12.50 percent.Khawaja Muhammad Younas President of DGCCI said that  12.50 percent mark up  will hamper the industrial upgradation, balancing modernisation and replenishment in the country. It will also negatively affect the business and trade activities, slowing down the economy of the country and amount of exports.Syed Muhammad Ahsan Shah Chairman of All Pakistan Bedsheet & Upholstry Manufacturers Association (APBUMA) said the use of expansionary monetary policy in the state of low economic growth and reduction in GDP to control over the damaging effects of low growth on employment and investment.He criticized the central bank for slashing the 75 basic points in policy rate describing it "Depressing". M.Anees Khawaja of APTMA Multan Chapter said that the State Bank of Pakistan is continuously following contractionary monetary policy and kept the policy rate at 12.50 percent while on the other side the government is not providing input material to the industry such as energy at an affordable level.Industry is also facing high cost of doing business in Pakistan due to infrastructure and policy bottlenecks. Continued monetary tightening has constrained private sector cash flows and Non-performing loans are rising.President of Women Chamber of  Commerce & Industry (WCCI) Multan Ambreen Abbas Khan, Vice President Mrs.Farah Rana   urged the SBP to reduce the policy rate in order to increase the demand of private sector credit which will ultimately help in new industrialization and economic growth.They said that the declining of demand of private sector credit is due to high cost of borrowing and slow economic activity in the country which will subsequently affect the next year economic growth and unemployment.They further said that current situation was not suitable for the women entrepreneurs. Begum Romana  Tanvir Sheikh chairperson of MCCI's women entrepreneur committee said that interest rate should be in single digit.