Shabbir Hussain Chawla, President Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI), has welcomed the directive of Finance Minister Ishaq Dar to ensure payment of 4000 Refund Payment Orders (RPOs) involving Rs 13 billion of sales tax. Talking to newsmen here today, he said that huge amount of exporters was withheld by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for the last many years whereas they have to get fresh bank loans at heavy mark up to manage their day to day financial matters.
It was also a reason to increase the cost of production in addition to wasting their precious time in unproductive activities. He said that the widening gap between import and export has opened the eyes of the government who is now trying seriously to facilitate the exporters. He termed Rs 180 billion Textile Package as a step towards this facilitation and said that the payment of stuck up refund claims along with other incentives has a salutary impact on export that has instantly stopped the declining trend in exports. He said that the government should continue to pay heed to the proposals of the exporters as phenomenal growth in exports is expected within this year as a result of the government measures.
He said increase in export will also bring internal prosperity in addition to bridging the gap between imports and exports. He said that the government had already taken a number of steps to facilitate the exporters but the government departments concerned created unnecessary hitches to nullify the targets of the government policies. In many cases the steps taken in good faith proved counterproductive only because of the negative attitude of the government departments and exports recorded decrease instead of expected increase. He said that it is probably first time that these steps have yielded required results and exports have increased during last two months. He hoped that the FBR will ensure the Payment of Refund Payment Orders (RPO) already issued to the exporters. He hoped that the government will review the implement of this directive positively during the first week of November so that further steps would be taken to ensure 100% payment by removing any obstacles. He hoped that Haji Muhammad Akram Ansari, State Minister for Commerce & Textile, should also reactivate his ministry and give it a clear task to liaison with the FBR to monitor the payment of RPO's on daily basis. He further said that the payment of refund claims of sales tax etc should also be linked with the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) so that in future the refund claims could also be paid in a systematic and organized manner without any touch of favouritism or corruption.
He said that a joint meeting of All Pakistan Presidents Chambers of Commerce & Industry will be convened during next month in Faisalabad to carve out a comprehensive strategy to tackle the problems confronted by the National economy.
Responding to a question Shabbir Hussain Chawla said that an international level "Made in Faisalabad Expo" will be arranged in the month of March or April. Responding to yet another question, former Senior Vice President Rana Sikandar Azam also denied that big industrialists had hijacked the FCCI. He said that out of 6000 members, 5000 are small traders and he himself represents this class.