LAHORE, May 21: Business community in Punjab will enhance the minimum wages of skilled and unskilled workers by Rs1,000 voluntarily with effect from July 1, which will benefit 3.2 million industrial labourers in the province.

Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Mian Shafqat Ali made the announcement during the visit of Punjab Governor Lt-Gen Khalid Maqbool (retired) to the chamber for the inauguration of its new library.

Mr Ali said the unskilled workers’ minimum wages would be increased from Rs3,000 to Rs4,000 and of the skilled ones from Rs3,500 to Rs4,500, after implementation of the decision.

Sheikhupura CCI head Mian Muhammad Yousaf, Bahawalpur CCI’s Mahbub Nasir Chaudhry, Sahiwal chamber’s Chaudhry Safdar Rashid, Rawalpindi chambers’ Senior Vice-President Ali Raza, Cottage Industry Association President Malik Ghulam Sarwar, Quaid-i-Azam Industrial Estate President Mian Noman Kabir, Lahore Township Industries Association President Khawaja Shahzad and construction industry representative Akbar Sheikh announced implementation of the decision to enhance the minimum wages and urged the government to notify the decision.

Mian Shafqat Ali claimed that due to the present government’s policies the country’s economy had achieved a growth rate of 8.4 per cent last year which was the highest in the region after China. He said the exports had increased from eight to 17 billion dollars, and the revenue target for the current financial year had been raised from Rs690 billion to Rs700 billion. Growing trade deficit was the only cause of concern for the economic managers, he added.

He said the industry had only 18 per cent share in the GDP, but was contributing 62 per cent to the tax revenue. Other sectors should also contribute to the revenue in accordance with their share in the GDP. He stressed the need for making arrangements for gas supply from Iran, Turkmanistan and other countries to overcome the expected shortfall in indigenous production in the near future.

He said the establishment of six new engineering varsities with the assistance of developed countries would help improve the standard of higher education in the province. The LCCI was contributing to the development of education by starting entrepreneurship and export diploma courses in Punjab University from the next academic session. He said the government should exempt the chambers from levy on commercialisation fee on the development of industrial property.

Speaking on the occasion, the governor appreciated the voluntary increase in workers’ minimum wages by the business community. He was pleased to learn that the business community had collectively realised the hardships of their employees on their own and decided to provide relief to them.

He said the new provincial budget would be ‘revolutionary’ and bring good news for the business community. It would facilitate further development of the market and give a boost to business.

He said the government believed that no economic development was possible without the private sector’s participation. The government would soon hand over Sui Northern and Southern Gas Pipelines and Pakistan State Oil to the private sector, he said.

He said that the government was also deregulating the economy and developing the infrastructure to facilitate rapid industrial development. Education and vocational training facilities were being upgraded to produce skilled work force badly required by the trade and industry, he said. Pakistan was the only country which had exempted its export-oriented industry from the sales tax, he added.

LCCI Senior Vice-President Aftab Vohra said that per acre yield in Pakistan was less than the neighbouring countries due to feudal system.

He demanded the government should introduce land reforms to facilitate increase in agricultural production. He said trade deficit should be controlled by checking imports of sub-standard goods through an effective quality control mechanism.

Mian Yousaf called for checking industrial piracy and adulteration by prescribing penalties for those involved in the crime.

Former LCCI president Mian Tajammal Hussain said Punjab had over 56 per cent of the country’s total population but was receiving only 20 per cent share from the skill training budget. The share should be enhanced in accordance with its population percentage, he demanded.