Federal Secretary for Commerce, Mohammad Younus Dagha, told the business community that various suggestions/proposals are under consideration to make Prime Minister's package for exporters more effective. "For the first time, investment policy will be made part of Trade Policy," he said speaking to the members of Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI).
Dagha told them that to fight back decreasing exports working had been underway for months. He said that initially duty drawbacks were to be released in August but now these are available from current month. He said that measures for betterment in infrastructure and beautification of Korangi Industrial Area would be initiated soon.
"Deteriorating environmental conditions are now a threat to our industry and exports. To deal with this threat, five treatment plants will be established in industrial areas through a grant of rupees 13 billion," he said. Answering a question by an industrialist, Dagha said that effective EDF investments are needed very much. He said that the adviser to the PM on Finance has indicated that refunds issue would be resolve soon.
Ex-president FPCCI and a renowned leader of business community, S M Muneer, said that in current economic situation exports and industry are suffering immensely. He said that Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi is making great efforts for the restoration of economy that give the business community some hope.
"Prime Minister has made a promise to him in a meeting that energy tariffs for industry will be lowered," he said, proposing that the Prime Minister should now spend a whole day with exporters to get insight of the issues. He also reminded the as yet unresolved issue of delay in refunds payment.
KATI president Tariq Malik welcomed the federal secretary and briefed him about KIA and other issues faced by industry. He said that SMEs and entrepreneurship were neglected in economic policies. He urged that import policy should be revisited to help industry and exporters and unnecessary imports should be restricted to save foreign exchange.
Head of KATI's Standing Committee on Exports & Trade, Gulzar Firoz said that federal government is collecting billons of rupees annually and charging 0.25 percent under the head of EDF, despite the fact that exports are being reduced. He suggested to the government to declare next two years as "Export Years.
"He said that tax rate in Pakistan is 11 pc higher than other countries of the region; hence, to decrease production cost, taxes should be curtailed by half. He also suggested either withholding tax on industry should be withdrawn or at least that should be decreased by 50%. Those others who attended the meeting included: SVP Salman Aslam, VP Junaid Naqi, SVP FPCCI Mazhar A Nasir, VPs Zahid Saeed, Haleem Tariq, ex-presidents of KATI Masood Naqi, Zubair Chhaya, Haji Naseem-ur-Rehman, and some other members.