SIALKOT
A meeting of National Assembly standing committee on Finance, Revenue & Economic Affairs Thursday unanimously recommended that export emergency should be declared in the country to control the decline in the export sector.
It met here under the chairmanship of Qaiser Ahmad Sheikh at Chamber of Commerce & Industry to discuss problems being faced by the exporters, stakeholders, and industrialists with Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), State Bank of Pakistan and National Bank of Pakistan.
The committee also made a joint declaration stating that concrete efforts should be made for protection and promotion of exports keeping in view the importance of export sector in the national economy and better interest of the country.
It also discussed the matter regarding industrial zones of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Director Board of Investment (BOI) briefed the committee about the implementation status with regard to the CPEC industrial zones. He said that initially, government has selected nine economic zones in all the provinces and government will offer equal investment opportunities to the Chinese investors as well as investors from the world.
He added that the government has lifted the ban on the commercial connections of Sui southern gas and government is looking forward for supply of gas in Khairpur economic zone, shortly. He further apprised the committee that provincial governments will build basic infrastructure and federal government will provide gas, electricity etc. Shaukat Khatak, a representative from BoI briefed the committee about the water supply schemes at Gawadar. He stated that government will complete its work in this regard soon.
The committee unanimously recommended that SCCI President Majid Raza Bhutta should be taken on board of the working group on industrial development, being representative from the Sialkot business community.
The committee discussed matters and issues related to income tax between commercial and industrial importers. FBR’s chairman briefing on the status of refunds for exporters till date, audit criteria defined by the FBR for industries and CPEC was part of the meeting agenda.
Earlier, Bhutta warmly welcomed the members of the Standing Committee and senior officers of Finance Ministry, FBR, MoI, SBP, Ministry of Planning, Development & Reforms. He appreciated the role of the said Committee for supporting the business community and he also admired the services of concerned Officers of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).
The Chamber president highlighted the issues being faced by the business community regarding refunds and rebates and audit criteria defined by the Federal Board of Revenue for Industries. However, Rehmatullah Wazir, a senior representative of FBR replied that Federal Board of Revenue had released Rs 50 billion during 2016 in shape of refund claims and rebate. He added that this year (in the first quarter) FBR has already released an amount of PKR 40 billion in this regard. The Committee unanimously recommended that matters pertaining to refunds and rebate should be resolved on priority basis.
While considering the issue of the differential of income tax between commercial and industrial importers, the committee once again recommended that same should be resolved as per the earlier recommendations and directions of the committee. However, he informed that the government has already been implementing the recommendations of the committee, partially.
