Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Monday formally inaugurated the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), which has been formed by merging Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE), Lahore Stock Exchange (LSE) and Islamabad Stock Exchange (ISE) into one stock exchange.

Addressing the ceremony, Ishaq Dar termed the day as a historic one, saying that it took 15 years to make this dream come true.

He said the formation of single national stock exchange would send a positive message abroad and would attract more foreign investors in the country’s capital market.

He said the government was determined to facilitate the lawmaking process in the capital market and most of the work has been done successfully while work on few bills, including Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SEP) Bill, 2015, Competition Restructuring Bill, 2015 was in process and they would also be passed soon.

He hoped that the management of newly formed PSX would focus on good transaction, governance and transparency and it would help further improve the country’s capital market performance.

He said the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), during its first two and half years of governance, had taken numerous reform initiatives in the country’s dwindling economy, which had now become a stable one.

He vowed that in future, the government would take bold initiatives for the economic development of the country. He asked the political parties not to indulge their politics in the projects of national importance.

“All the political parties should get together and work jointly for resolving challenges faced by the country for its betterment,” Dar added.

He said under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the government managed to take the country’s economy out of crisis as was endorsed by 22 international economic institutions who had termed the Pakistan’s economy as stable.

He said now due to rapidly improving economy, foreign investors were taking keen interest to invest in Pakistan.

“The $46 billion mega project of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is a game changer and it would bring prosperity and stability in the country,” the minister added.

He said the government had also introduced measures to enhance revenue collection and the government’s Voluntary Tax Compliance Scheme was part of those measures, which would help bringing hundreds of thousands new taxpayers into the tax net.

He said the scheme was not an amnesty scheme but it was a voluntary scheme, which was introduced only for the facilitation of small traders.

He also deliberated upon the government’s agenda of 4Es (Economy, Energy, Extremism and Education), saying that the government had successfully resolved the crisis of 4Es.

He said the government was endeavoring to resolve energy crisis and to end the load shedding by end 2017 or by the start of 2018 as 10,000 MW more electricity would be added to the national grid by that time.

Meanwhile, addressing the ceremony, PSX Chairman Munir Kamal said the formation of PSX was a watershed event for the country’s capital market.

He said due to rapidly improving economic situation of the country, not only local investors but the foreign investors were also taking keen interest in the Pakistan’s capital market. He said the Pakistan’s corporate governance performance was close to the world standard and after the formation of one national stock exchange, the performance would get better in the future.

He said there were some flaws in the taxation system. “We would like to present some proposals during the next budget and if the government accepts those proposals, the taxation system would become more improved.” ISE Board Chairman Mukhtar Hussain Jaffri said the decision of amalgamation of three stock exchanges was made after mutual consultation and agreement and the concerns of stakeholders were addressed.