Addressing a press conference at Karachi Press Club on Wednesday, PPMA Senior Vice Chairman Syed Farooq Bukhari and other office bearers said that in view of the global economic slowdown in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic, certain emergency steps and relief measures were required so that the pharmaceutical industry continued with its functioning to maximum production capacity.
He said that relevant state and government institutions should ensure provision of raw material to the pharmaceutical industry for uninterrupted manufacturing of medicines to treat the patients of coronavirus and other epidemics in the country.
He demanded that the US Dollar-Rupee parity should be fixed at Rs 155 for all the consignments being imported for normal functioning of the pharmaceutical industry in the country.
He said that all the relevant government agencies should ensure that clearance process of consignments of the pharmaceutical industry at all stages should continue round-the-clock and also urged the federal government to withdraw all duties, sales tax, and surcharges on clearance of goods at the shipping ports of the country.
He said that interest cost on the bank loans obtained by the pharmaceutical industry should be waived off for a period of three months starting from 15th March, 2020.
Bukhari said that the government should arrange special operation of cargo planes to China for emergency airlifting of the raw material required for the medicines' manufacturing in Pakistan.
He said that such emergency airlifting of the raw material for the pharmaceutical industry was required as globally transfer and shipment of goods had been severely affected due to travel and movement restrictions in place as parts of the worldwide efforts to slow down the transmission of Coronavirus.
The office-bearers of the PPMA said that apart from the continuous production to its fullest capacity, the pharmaceutical industry of the country was also ready to provide whatever assistance the government required to fight against the Coronavirus outbreak in the country.
Others who spoke on the occasion included PPMA Zonal Chairman South Iqbal Ahmad, Dr Kaiser Waheed, and Zahid Saeed.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020