• PM-appointed panel calls for measures to improve ease of doing business
• Seeks tariff overhaul to lift exports beyond $60bn in three years
• Highlights cross-cutting barriers across 20 export products
• Notes ‘policy unpredictability’ undermines investor, buyer confidence

ISLAMABAD: A body constituted by the prime minister and led by Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal has called for urgent reforms to improve the ease of doing business and for a serious restructuring and rationalisation of tariffs — both energy prices and trade duties — to more than double exports to over $60 billion within three years.

The committee was formed to devise a strategy for avoiding another IMF programme once the current $8.4bn arrangement expires at the end of 2027, amid mounting pressure from persistently weak economic indicators.

According to synopses compiled after week-long consultations with public and private sector stakeholders from Jan 5 to 9, the panel concluded that the current state of affairs was not capable of driving a fast-growing population of 250 million towards sustained prosperity because of cross-cutting constra­ints affecting “all 20 priority export products and six export drivers”.

Ironically, most of these constraints are generally well known, but the government’s inability, despite special interventions here and there, including through the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), to create a conducive working environment in a fair, equitable, rule-based and transparent manner, has hampered sustainable growth path beyond stabilisation under a restrictive programme volunteered to the........

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