ISLAMABAD: Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC), who is also President of Pakistan Sports Board (PSB), Dr. Fehmida Mirza, on Thursday held a meeting with Minister for Finance Shaukat Fayyaz Ahmad Tarin through video link.
The agenda of the meeting was relief in import duty on sports-related items in the forthcoming finance bill. Secretary IPC and DG PSB were also present in the meeting.
“Since the economy is in a better position this year, we want to increase the visibility of sports as we are preparing for the South Asian Games and the upcoming Olympics. We need financial support for that,” Fehmida said during the meeting.
She said the PSB wanted a reduction on tariffs on sports equipment such as hockey turf, athletic track, and squash glass court in the coming Finance Bill.
“In addition, we want certain sports to be exempted from tariffs. Countries around the world contribute a portion of their taxes to sports. We want the federal government to devise a system to contribute a portion of taxes to the sports fund to support national players,” she added.
The minister said that “Since the national teams represent Pakistan, the federal government should sponsor them. We are developing an elite pool of players to whom the federal government can provide support and funding to represent Pakistan at the international level.”
Fehmida proposed to include sports in Corporate Social Responsibility. “Our business community has shown interest in sports. It [the business community] also has representation in the PSB,” she said.
The Finance Minister assured full support to IPC and PSB in the development of sports and related infrastructure. There is a lack of better sports facilities for our youth. As a result, they become involved in social evils, he said.
He said sports were a healthy way to spend time.
Fehmida said the prime minister wanted a sports funding system that would be sustainable in the future. The finance minister endorsed her views and assured his full support to give importance to sports in the forthcoming Finance Bill.