Daily Times

KARACHI: The government has decided to extend exports package for next three years with the ratio of 50 percent on regular exports and 50 percent with condition of incremental exports, Secretary Commerce Yunus Dagha said on Saturday.

In his address to the SITE Association of Industry, Dagha said that several initiatives have been taken by the ministry to promote exports.

He said out of 488, duty on 255 items has been revised downwards.He said that for the first time in the country, a national tariff policy has been drafted which would be tabled in the parliament by the next elected government.

“Suggestions from industrialist are required on National Tariff policy 2018-23 which is available on ministry’s website,” he said, and added that under the emerging Pakistan initiative, several image building measures were taken which not only resulted in greater interest of the local industry but also improved Pakistan’s image worldwide.”The declining trend of exports has now been reversed and it is expected that exports would likely increase by 14% to 15%, rising up to US$ 23.4 billion by the end of this year,” he added.

The secretary was of the view that industry must not be penalized by cross-subsidy on utility tariffs (domestic and agriculture). He said that new hydel projects have been launched and industrial tariff will drop from Rs 16 to Rs 9.5 per unit very soon. He said that trade related investment policy is under compilation which focuses on import substitution, value addition and brand development. He also sought input from the industrialists on the proposed policy.

SITE Association of Industry President Javed Bilwani asked Dhaga to look into some minor issues which were being neglected for long,such as 24 hours movement of vehicles to the ports, especially Port Qasim, from Mai Kulachi. He said PICT, KICT and SAPT are three major ports of the city but unfortunately there were no direct links between the industries and the highways.

He demanded that examination and inspection of import and export consignments must be separated in order to reduce the clearance time.He also requested the secretary commerce to look into possibility of financing SITE Industrial House which would act as a mini expo center. He said SITE industrialists were ready to share the cost if seed money was provided by the Ministry of Commerce.

Published in Daily Times, July 1^st 2018.