Eighteenth amendment damaging  revenue generation: PEW

ISLAMABAD (NNI): The Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW) Chairman Brig (Retired) M Aslam Khan Sunday said the Eighteenth Amendment of the constitution has added to confusion in the taxation system. “It has divided taxation system in an unnatural way hampering documentation of the economy, helping the undocumented economy and increasing the cost of doing business for the business community,” the PEW said. The amendment has resulted in a unique Value Added Tax in Pakistan in which goods are taxed by federal authorities while services are taxed by the provincial authorities resulting in confusion, said PEW Chairman. He added that federal and provincial revenue authorities have their own conflicting definitions for goods and services which results in disputes, litigation and loss of revenue. The PEW Chairman said that the VAT is collected by a single authority in all the countries except for Pakistan where the tax on services gathered by provinces some of whom are facing lack of relevant laws, human resources, paraphernalia, and ability.

The capacity constraints resulted in low tax collection which has a negative impact on the overall collection, said Brig Aslam.

On the occasion, Dr Murtaza Mughal said the orchestrators of the 18th Amendment were not concerned about the welfare of the masses. They were concerned about politics otherwise corrective measures would have been taken after the realization of the devastating consequences of the move on dozens of the sectors.

He noted that a country can never progress without a just and sound VAT, therefore, the incumbent government must take corrective measures.

 

 

 

ILM Trust, UMT elect new leadership

 

LAHORE (PR): A meeting of the Board of Trustees of ILM Trust was held at UMT that unanimously announced the appointment of Ibrahim Hasan Murad as the executive president of ILM Trust and UMT Board of Governors, besides appointing Dr Ahmad Omar as the chairman and Farooq Salman as the vice chairman of the trust. The meeting was convened in the wake of sudden demise of former ILM Turst chairman Professor Dr Hasan Sohaib Murad in a car accident near Gilgit on September 10. The meeting was attended by Dr Khursheed Ahmad, Dr Rafiq Ahmad, Mohammad Mian Soomro, Dr Ijaz Shafi Gillani, Dr Ahmad Omar, Farooq Salman, Ibrahim Hasan Murad, Arslan Khan Khakwani, Dr Muhammad Nawaz, and Abid HK Sherwani. The Board of Trustees paid rich tribute to the services of the departed for the cause of education, Islam and Pakistan. Ibrahim, executive president of ILM Trust and UMT, was appointed a trustee in the year 2014. He holds a master’s degree in Educational Leadership and Management from University of Warwick, UK.

Prior to his current appointment, Ibrahim Hasan Murad served as the executive director of University of Management and Technology, after having initially served as the director of Academic Quality and Assessment.

He serves as the president of Institute of Knowledge and Leadership (IKL), Dubai, UAE since 2016. IKL provides talent development solutions to large size public and private organizations in the UAE, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other GCC states.

He is also the editor-in-chief and publisher of the Academia Magazine, the country’s leading source for credible and professional guidance and insights into the education sector. Ibrahim Hasan Murad has also founded Sitara-e-Hilal Foundation, which aims at infusing patriotism, spirit of sacrifice and service to the nation among school-going children.

Ibrahim Hasan Murad has high-level experience in strategic higher education administration with a special emphasis on institutional and campus development, resource mobilization, student engagement, success and e-learning.

Dr Ahmed Omer, Chairman of ILM Trust and UMT Board of Governors, is a scholar at UMT. He received his PhD in Biochemistry from Washington State University in 1991 and did his master’s degree from DePaul University, Chicago and bachelor's from UK. He worked as a research scientist before being drawn towards exploring how emerging technologies can be utilized for training and development of children and youth.

Dr Ahmed Murad served as the vice president of Sound Vision, an educational multimedia company in USA until 2012. He has dedicated himself towards developing self-learning software, widely used in Islamic education nowadays.

Dr Ahmed Murad has taught courses on contemporary Islamic issues at American Islamic College in Chicago and at UMT. He is a leading researcher on historical development of Islamic thought and jurisprudence and an active participant in inter-faith dialogue.

Farooq Salman Murad, vice chairman of ILM Trust, has been a trustee since 1997. He graduated in Engineering and Management from the University of Loughborough, UK. He has worked as a management and organizational development consultant, conducted training programs for various educational and community organizations across the world. He was Chairman of Muslim Aid (2004-2008) and Secretary General of Muslim Council of Britain (2010-2014). Currently he is Director General of Islamic Foundation, Leicester, UK.

 

 

OEC plan for promotional campaigns abroad unlikely to materialise

ISLAMABAD (APP): An idea to promote the domestic potential workforce abroad through extensive media campaigns and advertisements was unlikely to see the light of day since Overseas Employment Corporation (OEC) had been struggling for over a year to go-ahead with the plan due to uninterrupted delay in a fund release. “The idea was floated to tap a sudden decline came after some economic shifts in the countries of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) since 2015 when the number of per year out-going workforce was stood at some 946,571,” OEC, Deputy Managing Director (DMD) Muhammad Jamshed told APP. “An effective strategy is required on war footing to cover the drastic decline of over 0.7 million as around 216,164 Pakistanis proceeded this year for employment,” he added. Jamshed said earlier a PC-I of the Rs125 million had been worked out by the OEC last year for immediate marketing and promotional activities through State Life Emigrant's Insurance Fund (SLEIF) Account of the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis.

 

 and Human Resource Development (MOP&HRD).

The DMD said that a request to use SLEIF accounts was turned down by the authorities concerned on technical grounds though it was approved by Departmental Working Party (DWP) of the Ministry. OEC’s mandate as assigned under the Emigration Ordinance, 1979 Rule 4 (1), he pointed out that it may be authorised to utilise the funds from SLEIF Account.

Currently, billions of rupees are being accumulated in the SLEIF Account and these fund can be utilized for all activities related to promotion of employment abroad,” he added.

Responding to a question, the DMD said the promotional campaigns were required through foreign electronic, print and social media as well as at OEC's web portal, adding UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Libya, Malaysia and South Korea have been identified as potential countries for these drives and campaigns.

Currently, he said, the country had over 7 million skilled and semi-skilled workforce, out of which 2.5 million met the international standards and could contribute significantly in increasing foreign exchange reserves by sending remittances.

Another OEC official said that at present eight countries were in agreement with Pakistan of receiving skilled and non-skilled labour but the signed Memorandum of Understandings  were not being exploited to their full potential, he regretted.

He underlined the need for increasing government-to-government contacts and hiring more Community Welfare Attaches(CWAs). He complained, the 14 CWAs, most of them stationed at GCC, were hired to inform the departments concerned about new jobs in different companies but they were only busy in enjoying the perks and privileges of the post.  

“The department is standing nowhere in competition with private agents as they were sending around 5,00,000 people per year," the official said. The private companies could convince foreign employers to hire Pakistani manpower due to several reasons and incentives, which the OEC could not extend under existing rules and regulations, he added.

He was of the opinion that there should be an extensive and innovative strategy to engage the skilled workforce, considering the international market’s requirements , besides their employment-potential in different countries.

 

Companies engaged in electronic

transaction need to be accredited by ECAC

ISLAMABAD (APP): Electronic Certification Accreditation Council (ECAC) was fully committed to make electronic transactions more sure, reliable and worldwide acceptable for that all companies and individuals engaged in electronic transaction and encryption services  are required to get themselves accredited by ECAC. Electronic Certification Accreditation Council (ECAC) is providing more reliable and secured digital system to public through Digital Signature Certificate system under vision of `Digital Pakistan.' The Digital Signature Certificate authenticates identity electronically and provides people a high level of security for online transactions by ensuring absolute privacy of information exchanged using a digital certificate. Highlighting the role and benefits of Digital Signature Certificate System, Deputy Director ECAC, Wajahat Khan on Wednesday. He said Pakistan has been experiencing a challenge to make electronic transactions on a national and international level more secure, more reliable and worldwide acceptable.

He said digital transformation is need of the hour, demand for digital transformation is forcing companies, departments and people to change their business/working models and adapt to new market reality.

Wajahat Khan said any organization providing e-services to public comes under regulatory framework of ECAC, therefore, any organization providing such services are directed to get themselves accredited by Electronic Certification and Accreditation Council (ECAC). The certificates issued by service providers are the only digital one (certificates) accepted by courts of law, he added.

The ECAC official said, the Council, being fully functional regulatory body has enforcement powers to regulate electronic transactions in public and private sectors and mandated to grant accreditation to approved crypto apparatus and accreditation to any Certificate Service Providers who intends to work as an Accredited Service Provider.

ECAC has accredited National Institutional Facilitation Technologies (NIFT) and NIFT has been issuing certificates to various banks for purpose of confirming authenticity or integrity or both, of information contained therein, of an electronic document or of an electronic signature in respect of which it is issued.

Replying to a question, he said ECAC has enforcement powers to regulate Electronic transactions in public and private sectors and to provide accreditation of certification service providers.