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AS the government prepares the budget for FY27, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s meeting with the country’s leading businessmen on Monday offered a glimpse of the wide gap that exists between the two sides’ perception of Pakistan’s economic recovery. While the businessmen pressed their case for tax relief, faster refunds and deeper economic reforms, Mr Sharif boasted of the stability his government had pulled off and his intention of converting recovery into growth.
The government’s narrative is simple. After saving Pakistan from a likely sovereign default, restoring macroeconomic stability, reducing inflation and complying with the IMF programme, officialdom believes the foundation for sustained recovery has been laid. PM Sharif argued that the next phase would focus on growth. He did not say when. But the businessmen’s proposals suggest that much of the private sector is unconvinced that the investment climate has improved.
Their proposals focused on familiar but unresolved concerns: higher taxes, stuck-up refunds, excessive compliance burdens, policy unpredictability and absence of reforms to encourage investment and exports. These concerns are not new. By repeating them, the business leaders once again laid bare the mismatch in perceptions.
