Pakistan improves 'ease of doing business' ranking by 11 points: Dawood

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister’s Advisor on Commerce Abdul Razak Dawood on Wednesday said Pakistan was aggressively pursuing reforms to create ease of doing business in the country.

“Pakistan has improved its ranking by 11 points in doing business report 2019 for the first time in one year,” he said this at a joint media briefing along Chairman Board of Investment Haroon Sharif in Islamabad.

They said an integrated web portal had been established for registration of new businesses to reduce time and now a company can get itself registered in one day with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP).

They said that one window operation had been introduced for issuing a construction permit making the process efficient.

They told that a complete automation of property registration had been ensured in Punjab through online mode reducing the time drastically and improving transparency and quality of land administration.

“The salient features of reforms also include online payment of federal and provincial taxes and now the number of these payments has been reduced from forty seven to ten. Online payments will help Pakistan improve its ranking in paying taxes indicator,” they said.

Abdul Razak Dawood and Haroon Sharif said that K-Electric had made the process of getting a commercial electricity connection easier by making it online where the customer can track the application as well.

They said dedicated ease of doing business offices had been set up at federal and provincial levels to remove bottlenecks and facilitate investors in the smooth business operations.

Haroon Sharif said it was a priority of the government to make business entry and operations easier, faster and cheaper. He said the next step was to cut out the redundant regulations and remove unnecessary permissions, No Objection Certificates, and inspections.