PESHAWAR: Chairman, Businessmen Panel, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and former FPCCI vice-president, Mohammad Adnan Jalil, on Sunday called for drastic cutin the number of taxes, saying that the large number of taxes was damaging the national economy.

Talking to mediapersons here,he said thatinsteadofbenefiting the nation the large number of taxes was damaging the country`s economy. He demanded of the government to announce a sustainable industrial policy to increase exports and benefit both small and large-scale industries in the country.

He said that consultations between the government and business community on the review of industrial and investment policies were in progress and the Planning and Development Department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa hadagreed on the provision of onewindow operation.

Mr Jalil, who is also general secretary of KP Business Advisory Committee, said that presentlynearly40 departments were attached with the industries.

He claimed that the KP Industrial Policy 2016, which was prepared by KP Economic Zones Development and Management Company in consultation with only one chamber, had miserably failed.

He said that in the presence of the Board of Investment and Trade (BoIT) there was no need for the establishment of a company for the same purpose.

Mr Jalil said that the business community had demanded bringing GST to single digit and the abolition of provincial sales tax on phone bills.

He said that instead of building new industrial zones the provincial government should improve the infrastructure of existing estates most of which still had many vacant plots.