Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Shaukat Tarin, on Friday reiterated his unflinching support to exporters, encouraging them to come up with well-rounded proposals, enabling the government facilitate and support their industries in the post-COVID-19 scenario. Chairing a meeting with a delegation of exporters, the finance minister urged for adopting a forward looking approach for enhancing export earnings to reduce trade deficit. He directed to find a win-win situation with reference to protracted issues for taking value-added exports to the next level and emphasised the need for robust and sustained growth in exports on an immediate basis. The finance minister also appreciated the ministry of commerce, ministry of industries and production and State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) for their outstanding support and timely interventions for the small and medium industries amid COVID-19. While responding to queries related to current energy requirements, the finance minister stressed the need for load management by switching to alternate fuel options during peak demand period. He directed to form a working group of representatives from respective utility organisations for prompt action to fulfill energy requirements on a real-time basis in respective areas. The finance minister also assured of swift payments to exporters against their refunds and directed FBR that refunds requiring provincial government’s verification must be given on an interim basis subject to future adjustments. He constituted a sub-committee composed of representatives from the ministry of commerce, FBR and the SBP to sort out such matters at an accelerated pace. The underlying rationale is to ensure timely payments for exporters amid cash flow crunch. Earlier, Advisor to the PM on Commerce Abdul Razak Dawood welcomed exporters and commended their role for putting exports on a high growth trajectory during testing times due to the coronavirus pandemic. He affirmed full support and facilitation to resolve the liquidity crisis faced by the exporters. Among others, Federal Minister for Industries and Production Khusro Bakhtyar; Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Fakhar Imam; Advisor to the PM on Commerce Abdul Razak Dawood; SAPM on Finance and Revenue Dr Waqar Masood, Governor State Bank of Pakistan Dr Reza Baqar; Chairman FBR, secretary petroleum, secretary commerce and other senior officers participated in the meeting.