Daily Times

Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan sought suggestions from the business and industrial community on how to improve exports of the country, for which Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry KCCI stressed upon the need to establish Promo Councils in order to effectively promote the exports of surgical goods, fruits and vegetables, marbles, gems & jewelry and other products, said KCCI President Agha Shahab Ahmed Khan, while speaking at a meeting with the PM in Islamabad on Thursday,

“In this regard, the Commercial Counselors of Pakistan who are discharging their duties at some of the most lucrative export markets around the world will also have to play a more proactive role while the proposed Promo Councils must comprise of all the relevant stakeholders. For these Promo Councils, KCCI has identified around 36 sectors in which exports can be promoted by focusing on the value addition and through effective marketing,” Khan said while sharing details of the meeting with the PM which was also attended by PM’s Advisor for Commerce Razzak Dawood, Advisor for Finance Hafeez Shaikh, Federal Board of Revenue Chairman Shabbar Zaidi and representatives from different chambers of commerce and industry.

The KCCI president informed that the prime minister, while agreeing to KCCI’s suggestion for setting up Promo Councils, asked Dawood to look into the possibility of setting up these Promo Councils as it was essential to promote all the exports from different sectors. Four members from the business community will be chosen to carry out case to case study of National Accountability Bureau (NAB)cases against businessmen so that the business community is not harassed.

He further informed that in response to KCCI’s concerns over slow processing of refund cases under the recently launched Fully Automated Sales Tax e-refunds (FASTER) Module for e-refunds, the business community was told that whoever completely fulfils all the requirements of Annexure H will absolutely have no problems in obtaining the refunds through FASTER module, yet if anyone faces problems even after fulfilling Annexure H conditions, they can certainly approach the FBR and they will be fully assisted.