ISLAMABAD - All major political parties of the Parliament on Friday showed consensus over the National Economic Agenda (NEA) given by Pakistan Business Council (PBC) that emphasised on bringing all sectors into uniform documented tax net, eliminating Public Sector Enterprise (PSE) losses, eliminating non- targeted subsidies, resolving power crisis and protecting the poor. Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Muslim League-Q and Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) has appreciated the efforts of PBC for framing NEA for the economic reforms of the country. They also offered their full support for NEA. The Pakistan Business Council presented its National Economic Agenda in a meeting with the Parliamentarians. Speaking on the occasion, Chairman Pakistan Business Council, Asad Umar said that Pakistans economy is passing through a tough time, as average inflation rate is around 15 per cent for last three years and average GDP growth is only 3 per cent. He further said that our growth rate is 1/3 of the India and less than half of Bangladesh. Our political leadership is capable to meet the economic challenges, however they would have to solve it with the consensus he said and ,added, that we would ask the political parties leadership for nominating their representative for the membership of working group for engaging them in finalising the NEA. Similarly, we would seek approval and sign off by the top leadership of the each party including agreement on the implementation mechanism and on a structure to the support the implementation, he added. According to the NEA of PBC, the sustained annual GDP growth rate should be around six to eight per cent, inflation be reduced to single digit, unemployment and underemployment should be reduced. 'The lower inflation rate and employment would lead to reduce the poverty in the country. Similarly, the loadshedding of gas and power should be eliminated, elimination of crowding out of private sector from credit market and enhancing the ability of the private sector to increase investment, it added. Meanwhile, the NEA further suggested that a 50 per cent increase of children in the country who enrol and stay in schools in the next five years. 'To achieve the above economic reforms, the five reforms areas including better macro-economic management of the economy, energy for growth, protecting the poor, educating for the future and regional trade as a growth driver need to be urgently addressed, it added. In better macro-economic management of the economy, the fiscal deficit should be reduced to three or four per cent of the GDP in next three years through increase in tax to GDP ratio to 15 per cent in five years through better collection of taxes, bringing all sectors into a uniform documented tax net, eliminating non-targeted subsidies and phasing out the government role in commodity operations, eliminating PSE losses by empowering professional boards and management to reform and restructure these institutions without political interference and gradually bringing down corporate tax rates to make them competitive with other emerging economies, it said. NEA stated that for energy growth, the government should take urgent decision to fast track the import of LNG, carryout an urgent needed revamp programme for the existing assets in power generation and distribution system. 'The government should revisit the gas price being offered to the E&P companies to encourage accelerated exploration and development of indigenous gas resources. It should also carryout focused developmental work on other indigenous fuel sources particularly hydel and Thar coal and put in place a structured programme to deregulate the energy sector in three to five years. According to NEA, for protecting the poor, the government should increased spending on social protection from one to three per cent of the GDP, subsidies intended for the poor class should be targeted, new social protection programmes in the areas of nutrition, employment and health insurance need to be designed and implemented. Meanwhile, the current education system would not able to take the country to the next level of development. The government therefore should increase the education budget by 0.5 per cent of the GDP per annum so that it reaches five per cent of the GDP, it stated. Retain Higher Education Commission (HEC) and modify its role in consonance with provision of the 18th amendment, substantially increase the scope of technical and vocational education and also mainstream the Madrassah education, it added. 'For regional trade, the NEA suggested that the government should invest in supporting infrastructure, grant India Most Favourite Nation status, use the SAFTA framework to address the non-tariff barriers and also develop strategy for trade policy to use it to strengthen linkages with our neighbours and beyond, the strategy to also include a policy to promote transit trade. Later, the representatives of all political parties appreciated the effort of PBC for formulating NEA. Raja Pervaiz Ashraf of PPP in his remarks said that President Asif Ali Zardari has assured full support to PBC for the economic reforms. He hoped that all political parties would agree on the National Economic Agenda. He further said that our government believes on consensus among the political parties and we make all the legislation with the consensus of political parties. Speaking on the occasion, Senator Haroon Akhtar Khan of PML Q, said that due to the policies of the government the inflation is on the higher side while the GDP growth in on the lower side. However, he was of the view that two points including concentration of agriculture sector and water issues were missed in the National Economic Agenda. Ahsan Iqbal of PML N in hid remarks also showed concern over the higher inflation and lower growth rate of the country. He has said that we have to eliminate corruption in governments organizations. Farooq Sattar, MQM, stressed on the imposition of the taxes on agricultural income. He said that this sector contribute 23 per cent to the GDP however pay only one per cent tax, which is injustice, as every income must be taxes. He was of the view that ratio of direct and indirect taxes needs to equalise, as it is 38 and 62 per cent in Pakistan while in other countries it remains 50, 50 per cent. There should be free market mechanism and no role of the government in price support mechanism, he added. Jehangir Tareen MNA came with a suggestion to impose taxes on all incomes including agriculture income. All members of National Assembly, Provincial Assemblies and Senate should declare their assets and taxes, which they paid. Apart from the above Parliamentarians, Qamar Zaman Kaira MNA, Sherry Rehman MNA, Senator Waqar Ahmad Khan, Khaqan Abbasi MNA, Khurram Dastagir MNA, Pervaiz Malik MNA, Rashid Godil MNA and Senator Ahmad Ali Khan attended the meeting.