ISLAMABAD, JUL 26: /DNA/ – Former President of the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI), Dr Shahid Rasheed Butt, said on Friday that no economy could ever develop by indiscriminately increasing taxes.

He said that raising taxes while avoiding the expansion of the tax is increasing poverty in the country.

In a statement issued today, Shahid Rasheed Butt stated that a country where the masses are starving and the middle class is being wiped out could never become self-reliant.

The business leader said the economy could never flourish by increasing taxes and utility prices.

There have been many claims of the country’s development in the last nine years, but the electricity consumption in Pakistan is the same as it was nine years ago, while the population has increased a lot.

He warned that if we do not make electricity more affordable for economic development, businesses will close, businesspersons will go bankrupt, and people will lose their jobs.

The government will have to pay attention to the closing industries. He asked, “How can industrial production increase when our industry is not functioning?”

Millions of workers have lost jobs due to the industry’s closure; therefore, the government should move towards industry revival.

After three years of activation, the textile looms have once again closed. He underlined that if the wheel of industry moves, the wheel of the economy will move, too.

He asserted that although agriculture serves as the foundation of the nation’s economy, it needs to receive more attention, leading the agricultural nation to import food items valued at billions of dollars.

Shahid Rashid Butt advocated for modernizing agriculture to boost crop and fruit production, making barren and uninhabited land fertile, and providing farmers with subsidies for fertilizer, oil, and electricity.

In three provinces, gas and oil reserves can increase production and improve the country’s fortune by cutting energy import bills.

Many countries in the world depend on tourism. We have beautiful valleys, mountains, rivers, deserts, plains, and beaches. However, we have yet to attract tourists’ attention, primarily due to the law and order problem.

We have never paid much attention to religious tourism, even though our country is the birthplace of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Sikhism. If we open the doors to the people of these three religions, we will have given them access to their holy places to two and a half billion people, which can change the country’s destiny.