Mian Zahid Hussain urges reliable energy supply for export industries as deficit widens
Mian Zahid Hussain, president of the Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum and of the All Karachi Industrial Alliance, has urged the government to ensure reliable energy supplies to export industries at competitive rates and to clear tax refunds without delay.
Hussain, who also chairs the National Business Group Pakistan and the FPCCI Policy Advisory Board, said frequent or unpredictable changes to tax and sales tax refund rules, customs duties on raw materials and machinery, and industrial electricity and gas tariffs create uncertainty for investors and exporters. Decisions on taxation, tariffs and energy should be clear, consistent and predictable, he said. Simplifying port procedures, customs clearance and trade documentation is also necessary to reduce business costs and production lead times, he added.
His comments followed the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics' report for September 2026, which showed exports rising 10.84 per cent in the first quarter of FY2026-27 while imports grew 13.21 per cent, widening the trade deficit by 15.13 per cent to USD 10.79 billion. Exports for July to September reached USD 8.42 billion, against approximately USD 7.60 billion in the same period a year earlier.
Commenting on the July-September trade figures, Hussain said the rise in the import bill could not be dismissed as a one-month development, and that its causes, composition and effects on domestic production needed to be examined. The US-Iran war has sharply raised petroleum prices, he said, contributing to pressure on Pakistan's import bill. If the quarterly trade deficit remained close to USD 10.79 billion in each of the remaining three quarters, he said, the full-year deficit could reach approximately USD 43.16 billion, or about USD 43.2 billion.
Pakistan received USD 41.6 billion in remittances during FY2025-26, while the State Bank of Pakistan projects inflows of USD 44 billion in FY2026-27. Remittances are expected to provide an important cushion to the external account, but they cannot be treated as a direct offset to the merchandise trade deficit. Hussain described the rise in exports as encouraging, but said sustaining that progress would require Pakistan to broaden the range of products it exports and the markets it serves. Domestic alternatives should also be developed to ease import pressures, he said, while avoiding protection that makes locally produced goods more expensive or lowers their quality.
