KARACHI: The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) on Friday demanded a better, more competent and responsible leadership at the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on behalf business, industry and trade community of the country.

In a statement, FPCCI president Mian Nasser Hyatt Maggo condemned the insensitive, irresponsible and fictitious statement by SBP Governor Reza Baqir on deprecating value of the rupee and how it was benefiting Pakistan.

“We now know why the rupee has lost so much value in such a short span of time as the leadership at the SBP has exposed itself through irresponsible statements and poor performance in maintaining the exchange rate,” Mr Maggo said.

The FPCCI president said that there was no economic sense and justification in the statement that Pakistan has gained around $3 billion due to recent depreciation of the Pak rupee. He added that the ground realities were diametrically opposite than the assertions by the SBP governor.

“The monetary policy should be devised in a manner to promote economic growth and bring stability in the economic indicators; however, monetary policy has failed to achieve any of the above,” Mr Maggo added.

FPCCI VP Nasir Khan said the unrelenting depreciating exchange rate was playing havoc with the Pakistani society and the economy.

“This is unsustainable and prime minister should intervene — in the larger national interest — immediately to arrest the slide in the value of rupee. The government must address the domestic and imported inflation through its monetary and fiscal policies; instead of making lame excuses,” he said.

Mr Maggo said that hardly any justification exists in continuation of the present SBP governor. In fact, ethically speaking, he should prefer to resign himself in view of totally indefensible policy structure given by the SBP.

The FPCCI also demanded a binding inquiry into the conduct of the SBP in recommending sweeping tax concessions for non-resident companies to attract investments in government debt at very high rates to favor certain foreign commercial banks. The same conduct of the SBP governor is part of historical archives when he was in Egypt, the statement added.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2021