Karachi : Chairman of National Business Group of FPCCI, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Monday suggested steps to improve documentation of the economy.

Documentation of the economy is only possible when all the stakeholders agree to it which is not possible in the current set of rules and regulations, he said. 

Mian Zahid Hussain said that despite harsh measures adopted over the last seven years the money out of the banking system has more than doubled indicating that masses and the business community is willing to spend on keeping and transporting money and face associated risk but not ready to trust legal channels. 

Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that the government has increased cost of doing business for the undocumented sector but to no avail therefore new methods should be applied. 

He said that the government should handle the prize bonds worth Rs.25,000 and exactly the way it pushed prize bonds worth Rs.40,000 out of the market. Similarly, the currency notes of Rs.5,000 should be gradually pushed out of the market.

The government can force all the business transactions through banks in a gradual manner after introducing reforms and reducing the cost of digital transaction to encourage the business community.  

He said that annual business transactions in Pakistan are worth $125 billion but it is not properly documented leaving government with the option to borrow or increase taxes of petroleum products because revenue shortfall is a reality. 

Pakistan will depend on borrowing from internal and external sources unless the tax net is expanded for which out of the box solutions must be introduced, he said.