Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan said on Thursday that list of importable items from India is being re-arranged in descending order without adding any thing to the positive list. "We are not increasing the number of importable items from India, however, list is being re-arranged in descending order based on the new H.S. code to make the list user-friendly," he said while addressing post trade policy press conference.
He also admitted that there were some problems in the implementation of South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) and it was not taking off as per expectations. Replying to a question, he said that the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) has been established in accordance with the constitution and government would continue to issue ordinances to keep it intact until it becomes an Act.
Humayun Akhtar was also critical of government's monetary polices which according to him was focusing more on fiscal deficit, revenue collection and debt serving rather on enhancing exports.
Replying to a question, he said that monetary policy and currency issued were being handled by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), however, he always expressed his views on such issues in the meeting of monetary and fiscal policy committee.
About the exportable surpluses, he said that high interest rate in large scale manufacturing (LSM) and low yield were the major hurdles in the availability of exportable items and government is focusing more on these issues as well. Humayun further said that despite several challenges and difficulties the Pakistani exports increased from $8 billion to $17 billion in the last couple of years.