Abdul Rasheed, President, SITE Association of Industry, has in a press statement, expressed serious concerns over non-interference by the State Bank of Pakistan to control present rupee devaluation and has demanded to immediately take steps to control increasing rupee-dollar parity. On Thursday, the dollar touched the highest ever level of PKR 228 which is having adverse impact on the business activities in the country and the industries in particular, are now at the verge of collapse due to constantly increasing cost of production.
SITE President said that despite the demand of the business community to control rupee devaluation, no effective steps were taken by the State Bank of Pakistan. Instead the State Bank of Pakistan stated that the economic situation of the country is better. This statement of the SBP is contrary to ground realities as business and industries are suffering the most due to increasing dollar value. Raw material is imported to meet the requirements of local industries. Due to costlier dollar value, the imports have also become costlier, thereby increasing production cost and making it difficult to run industries.
Abdul Rasheed added that the government is focusing only on getting a loan from the IMF without considering how to refund the IMF loan when there will be no industry and no tax collection. In the absence of adequate tax collections, the economy will collapse.
Drawing attention of the federal government towards the gravity of the matter, Abdul Rasheed demanded to control of rupee devaluation and flight of dollar to avert its negative impact on industries and economy as a whole.
