Interview with Mr Farooq Dadi – a renowned businessman
[box type=”shadow” align=”” class=”” width=””]Profile:
Mr Farooq Dadi is a bonafide businessman having done Honours and Masters in the subject of international relations from Karachi University. He was a student leader and was the Chairman of Pakistan Liberal Students (one of the leading student parties during 1970s). He started his career as a businessman but was more focused as a socio-economic activist. He used to identify leakage of revenue from CBR Central Board of Revenue which is now Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), which contributes 60 percent to our national budget. He is still into business as an indentor, trader and is dealing in pharmaceutical raw material. He is also an active member of FPCCI, KCCI, Rotary International, Arts Council of Pakistan, Karachi University Alumni etc.[/box]
PAGEÂ had an exclusive conversation with Mr Farooq Dadi. Following are the excerpts of the conversation:
There is a need to revamp and take following measures to bring dollar and other foreign currencies at appropriate rate.
1- Crack down all those who got their loans written off in the past and now their properties are in trillions irrespective of being MNAs, MPAs or whosoever may be must be held accountable.
2- Shut down all the money changers with immediate effect for three months and decrease the quota of travelers from US$10,000 to US$3,000 or equivalent. Strict checking at airport and special counter should be established to declare foreign exchange at the departure custom lounges. All the borders should be strictly tightened to prevent outflow of foreign currency especially launches to Dubai, UAE.
3- Millions of foreign exchange is kept in banks and in private lockers. Major portion of the amount were black money of loot and plunders by politicians, government officials, businessmen etc. If they get the fear of crackdown, these lockers’ major portions of foreign exchange will come in the market, which would help reduce rates of foreign exchange in the market.
4- Scrutinize exporters’ remittances. Normally the same exporters open their own company off shores and export to their own company and declare in their agreement upto 25 percentage of discounts, which they keep abroad and rest of the balance they remit to Pakistan. Many exporters don’t even bring full amount to Pakistan. There is a need to be scrutinized for last ten years or at least 5 years of remittances against their exports.
[ads1]
5- All off shore assets including properties foreign exchange belonging to the Pakistanis should be declared.
6- Award incentives to the overseas Pakistanis for remittances sent to Pakistan from abroad.
7- Scrutinize all the automobile manufacturers who are misusing free imports of parts. All excess free import than the actual requirements should be liable to custom duties.
8- Scrutinize the textile sector. Nowadays it is common that they import duty free to Pakistan for the purposes of re-exports. Many businessmen import the most prime quality, which they sell in local market and export the cheapest quality just to justify their formalities of re-exports. Government is losing huge revenue. We need to revamp this area too.
9- All the restaurants and hotels charge sales tax from the customers but actual collected tax is not deposited to the tax authorities. There are restaurants whose sales per day ranges between 30 to 50 lacs but their contribution in terms of sales tax is hardly 5 to 10 percent to the government.
10- Majority of the marriage halls’ per day rent for the functions is around 6 to 8 lacs minimum, however, what about their ratio in terms of sales taxes to the government? My humble suggestion is that government should take strict actions in this regard in order to bring black money and taxable money in the market.