ISLAMABAD, March 21: The Task Force on Investment has proposed reduction in the corporate tax and called for effective implementation of decisions for attracting local and foreign investment.

The meeting of task force, presided over by prime minister’s adviser on privatization and investment Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, decided here on Friday to consolidate all the recommendations to be presented to the prime minister for final approval shortly.

“A number of new measures were discussed and approved by the task force, including to have separate task forces for Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad,” said Board of Investment chairman Waseem Haqqie.

He told Dawn the federal task force had proposed the reduction of corporate tax by 2-3 per cent, which was currently being charged at the rate of 43, 35 and 47 per cent for unlisted companies, listed companies and the banking sector, respectively.

“We have also proposed that there should not be any duty on the import of plants, machinery and raw material,” he further stated.

Moreover, he said it was the consensus of the meeting that Wapda, the KESC and the CBR should be asked to remove various irritants being faced by the investors.

One of the major problems, he said, was the implementation of decisions and an effective coordination among various government and non-government agencies. “And for this purpose, it has been decided that the BoI will play an effective role of a facilitator,” he added.

Responding to a question, he said a task force on investment for Karachi will be headed by Sohail Wajahat Siddique, Chief Executive Siemens, while Dr Salman Shah has been appointed as head of the task force for Lahore. Likewise, the task force for Islamabad will be headed by former finance secretary Saeed Qurashi.

He said there were many irritants like not having infrastructure facilities in time and matters pertaining to judicial system, tourism, etc., were causing problems to the investors. “We would shortly be submitting a complete data to the prime minister for everything with a view to get various irritants removed,” the BoI chairman said.

“And my suggestion was also to send this data to the ministries concerned so that when the prime minister takes a meeting, everything should be clear for taking better decisions to promote investment,” Waseem Haqqie said.

He said the task force had also proposed to strengthen the BoI for which its board, headed by the prime minister, would also be meeting regularly in future.

He said the prime minister now would be the head of the federal Task Force on Investment while provincial task forces will be headed by the chief ministers.

In reply to a question, he said that one of the irritants was the image of the country, which needed to be improved for promoting investment.