Desk opened on LCCI premises to act as hotline with businesses: NTC chief

LAHORE: Chairperson National Tariff Commission Anjum Asad Amin and President of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry Kashif Anwar on Tuesday jointly inaugurated NTC Help Desk at the LCCI premises.

LCCI Senior Vice President Chaudhry Zafar Mahmood, Vice President Adnan Khalid Butt, Director NTC Muhammad Arshad and LCCI Executive Committee Members were also present on the occasion.

Kashif Anwar appreciated the NTC chairperson for immediate action of setting up help desk at the LCCI.

Speaking on the occasion, Chairperson National Tariff Commission Anjum Asad Amin that NTC Help Desk at LCCI will work as a hotline between the business community and National Tariff Commission of Pakistan.

She agreed with the LCCI President Kashif Anwar that a Charter of Economy will be the first step towards economic stability of the country therefore; practical steps should be taken in this regard.

She said that the National Tariff Commission is functioning under an Act and its status is judicial because it can investigate. She said that when a person exports to Pakistan, NTC levies duties while keeping in view all the facts after investigation. He said that WTO has made it mandatory that when you impose a tariff on global trade, you will have to fully investigate.

She said that main function of NTC is the imposition of anti-dumping duty. It also creates a data bank to monitor tariff and advise accordingly.

Chairperson NTDC said that role of the department is to advise the government on tariffs. She said that the National Tariff Policy was introduced in 2019 for five years. Earlier, this work was initially being done by the FBR and after 2019 NTC has started work under national tariff policy.

She added that our tariff is the highest in Asia. The National Tariff Policy was introduced to move towards tariff rationalization and competitiveness. She said that the policy has four objectives. First one is the maximum competitiveness, second one is employment provision, third one is the price structure and consumer welfare and the fourth is to remove the tariff anomalies. She said that a lot of work has been done on these objectives.

She added that soon NTC is releasing the first petrochemical policy and a huge investment is well on the way in this sector.

She said that at this time, the duties that are being imposed were not the NTC mandate but because of difficult times, we have to impose these.

She said that a Tariff Policy Board is formed to set tariffs headed by Commerce minister and members included secretary Commerce, secretary BoI, secretary Finance, chairman FBR and chairman NTC.

LCCI President Kashif Anwar said that political stability is the key element for economic development therefore the political parties should show maturity on the national issues to safeguard the interests of the countries.

He said: “Pakistan is suffering from political unpredictability that’s why the foreign investors always remained reluctant to invest in Pakistan.”

The LCCI president said that amnesty is very important as it will bring the undeclared money into the economic circle.

He said that there is a lot of money in vaults and invested in land which should be taken out through amnesty. Earlier, all the amnesties were deliberately failed. He said that amnesty should be granted across the board and unconditionally as it can bring out around $10 billion into the circulation.

He requested the NTC that duties and taxes should be rationalized on those raw materials which are not being produced in the country or are not able to fulfill the required needs. About stuck containers at ports, the LCCI president said that whether the ports should be given the status of bond so that the businessmen can get rid of the demurrage and detention charges. He said the LCCI has also signed MoUs with various medical and educational institutions to facilitate its members. He added that the political stability is very important for economic stability.

He said the LCCI has been advocating since long for one window facility to carry out different liabilities. The idea of establishing one window can prove handy in this connection. He said that these measures, if taken instantly can help in improving the ease of doing business ranking of Pakistan.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023