UNISAME SENDS SOS TO PM

The Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (UNISAME) expressed serious concern at the hyper inflation and urged the prime minister (PM) Mian Nawaz Sharif and his government to puncture it in good time as the SME units have become unprofitable and the common man’s condition has become miserable in the face of daily increases in prices of essential items like food, clothing, medicine and medical care making his survival difficult.

President UNISAME Zulfikar Thaver speaking at a forum to highlight the grievances of the SMEs at a local club expressed serious concern at the state of affairs and said the SME units feasibility is lost due to increase in the prices of inputs and increase in cost of production due to depreciation of rupee. The import of raw material is become expensive, the transportation of goods is become costly and likewise the running expenses have shown a sharp increase.

He said mere increase in discount rate will not be able to curb inflation and measures are needed to control the hyper inflation due to which the buying power of the customer has reduced and only bare essential items are being purchased by the common man. This is reflecting in the sales of the SME units and the SME outlets are sitting hand on hand.

The government needs to impose foreign exchange regulations, control the transfer of funds, check smuggling, hoarding and
discourage imports of goods manufactured in Pakistan. Declare austerity, reduce its own expenses and announce energy saving and simplicity in life style.

On the other hand the government needs to promote productivity, exports, value addition, set up import substitution industries and promote alternate energy systems. The import duty on raw material needs to be reduced to lower cost of production to enable SME units remain competitive.

Stressing the urgent need to take bold measures both short term and long term he advised the government to invoke the government and semi government institutions to gear up to face the challenges to the economy and demanded higher efficiency from the state owned institutions, bureaucracy and the ministers.

The union reminded the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) government of its promises to reduce corruption, inefficiency and wastage and urged the PM and his cabinet ministers to roll up their sleeves and take anti corruption measures, demand performance from the officers employed by the government and plug wastage.

The union expressed surprise as to how the government could remain a mere spectator to the sharp increase in the prices of vegetables, fruits, grains and kitchen items making it impossible for the common man to survive. The union invited the immediate attention of the government to the fact that the common man is unable to eat even one square meal and as a result the education and medical needs of the family are totally ignored. The situation is getting from bad to worse and demands the immediate attention of the rulers.

Posted in: Press Releases