LAHORE – President of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry Irfan Iqbal Sheikh had a teleconference with Advisor to Prime Minister for Commerce, Textile, Industry, Production and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood and shared his plan for exports uplifting.
The PM Advisor said that government is committed to cope with the challenges being faced by the country. He said that country’s survival lies. He said, “We have to bring in export culture and export driven growth strategy”.
Abdul Razak Dawood said that responsibility of the government is to correct the things government is rectifying them that went wrong in past. It is government’s responsibility to give businessmen market access. He said that engineering and other sectors are also being focused for exports.
He also emphasized to bring in quality culture as it would definitely help in enhancing exports. The adviser said that he is persuading Pakistan’s manufactures to send their products outside the country in quantity terms at the maximum to attain the market share.
LCCI President Irfan Iqbal Sheikh said that Special permission should be granted to Industries for loading export cargo.
He said that to bring more liquidity in the economy, it is requested that the Refunds of the Export Oriented Industries should be released on immediate basis. He appreciated the recently announced initiatives by the Government to enhance the exports growth of Pakistan after the economic slowdown by COVID-19 Outbreak.
Irfan Iqbal Sheikh said that Government should revive the Zero-Rating facility for the export oriented Industries. He said that Income tax refunds of Rs 100 Billion should be released immediately for Industry to overcome liquidity issues.
The Government should not charge payments for DTRE and DLTL so that the issue of refunds is not created. He said that special permission should be granted for transportation of labour of export oriented industries. The Government should re-allow BMR (Balancing, Modernization and Replacement) Tax Credit of 10% under section 65B of Income Tax Ordinance.
In order to reduce the cost of doing business for our local industry, the Gas Tariff should be reduced by for all the Industries. There should also be reduction on gas rates for Industry.
He said that Income Tax Exemption certificates on electricity bills should be allowed for all the Industries.
The raw materials for export oriented industries which are not manufactured locally should be zero rated.
Irfan Iqbal Sheikh said that the government (Federal and Provincial) needs to publicly announce the approval for exporters, ensuring all Govt functionaries i.e administration and law enforcers respect that approval. This announcement will also help to deal with the media who do not understand that the Govt has given exporters permission to complete their pending export orders.
LCCI President said that various essential food items in Pakistan are imported from Australia, Canada and Myanmar. There is a chance that these countries might stop their exports of essential food items. The government should have a backup plan of finding substitute markets for importing essential food items on emergency basis.
He said that export the industries across all sectors which have confirmed export orders, should be allowed to operate in the lockdown period. A special mechanism should be devised by the government in this regard.
He said that the workers are only in the factories for 8 hours and for the remaining 16 hours they are on their own. Companies cannot be held responsible for workers conduct outside the premises and could expose them to coronavirus. He said that premises should not be either raided or sealed in case of possible cases.
Irfan Iqbal Sheikh said that due to closure of airspace, the courier companies like DHL and FEDEX are not operating in Pakistan. As a result the documents of importers are stuck in China while their consignments have arrived at Karachi Port. The Government should give a special provision to facilitate importers for releasing import consignments against copied documents with the payment of shipping guarantee which is equal to 100% of margin value.–PRESS RELEASE
