ISLAMABAD (PPI) - President of India Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry SM Muneer has expressed concern in a letter addressed to his Indian counterpart in Federation India Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) on the delay of cotton shipments from India due to some amendments in the notification issued by Indian government which require the contracts for export of cotton to be registered with the Directorate General of Foreign Trade, prior to shipment, which will be verified by the customs before execution of exports orders. SM Muneer has termed this as a Non Tariff Barrier ( NTB) caused by the Indian bureaucracy and a sheer violation of the free market mechanism which will hamper the bilateral trade between the two countries, as one million cotton bales of Pakistani importers are likely to get stuck up which were under signed agreements with Indian cotton exporters well before the controversial notification. India has produced 32.5 million cotton bales this year with 10 percent upward growth compared with last fiscal year and Pakistan is the major importer from India. Muneer said that when the business ties between the two countries are being strengthened and both the governments are supporting their private sectors to expand their existing trade relations, this sudden imposition of unjustified notification on the exporters of cotton to a country which has been given the status of most-favoured-nation, is unwarranted. Economic revival outlined LAHORE (PPI) - While giving a roadmap for the revival of economy for the year 2011, Pakistan Industrial and Traders Associations Front Wednesday termed to utilize all available resources and motivate all segments of the society for turning the economy around. The issues including Power outages, repeated hikes in petroleum products, electricity rates, gas shortage, unprecedented increase in daily use items and bad governance would be taken up with the concerned govt departments. The roadmap was given by the newly elected PIAF Chairman Engr. Sohail Lashari while addressing the PIAF meeting. The PIAF Vice Chairmen Nadar Kamal Osman and Junaid Iqbal Sheikh also spoke on the occasion and gave their point of view as to how the ongoing crisis like situation could be averted. Engr. Sohail Lashari said that the Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani should intervene into the OGRA affairs and stop it from making any further increase in the petroleum prices as it would not only affect the governmentIs credibility but would also break all previous records of inflation in the country. To overcome the energy shortage, the newly elected PIAF Chairman said that government would have to adopt the alternate means of energy generation besides initiating work on the construction of water reservoirs including Kalabagh Dam. He said that the country is self sufficient for power generation through solar means, therefore, the government should come up with a package of incentives so that maximum number of people could be able to use solar equipment. He said that the power tariff registered an upward trend of 67 percent in 2010 while it was almost hundred percent in the last three years. Due to this single reason, Pakistani merchandise failed to get due appreciation at the international market and the neighboring countries made huge gains as the rate of electricity for the industry in Bangladesh was 9.5 cents, in India it was 9 cents against a rate of 13 cents in Pakistan. They said that the entire trade and industry suffered heavy losses in 2010 due to repeated long hours scheduled and unscheduled power outages and resultant disruptions in production processes. Engr. Sohail Lashari urged the government to declare the year 2011 as the Year of Power Generation and initiate work on mega water projects including Kalabagh Dam. Unless and until dependence on thermal power is curtailed, there are hardly any chances of economic revival and precious foreign exchange was being spent on oil import. The PIAF Chairman also stressed the need for bringing down the fast escalating rate of inflation that has now started taking its toll. While calling for bringing down the rate of interest, he said that the state Bank of Pakistan should divert its attention towards banking spread that is intolerable and taking the equity away from the reach of the business community. They said that the rate of interest in India is 11.5 per cent. In Bangladesh it is 12.5 percent while in Sri Lanka it is 9.75 per cent against 17.5 per cent in Pakistan. The PIAF Chairman said that there was a dire need to take corrective measures and focus shift on the part of the government as the Reformed General Sales tax would complicates the things beyond expectations of the government. It would be better for the policy makers if they concentrate on increasing Tax-to-GDP ratio which is lowest in Pakistan. The Tax-to-GDP Ratio in Bangladesh is 14.5 percent in India 15 per cent, in Sri Lanka it is 16 per cent while in Pakistan it is 8.8 per cent. He said that if the government fails to take appropriate measures for the economic revival, the trade deficit would cross the staggering figure of 12284 billion by June 2011. ENDS-PPI