ISLAMABAD: After accommodating the recommendations of Prime Minister Secretariat, the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) is going to submit the final draft of its e-commerce policy to the PM office for approval from the cabinet. With an expected approval from the cabinet, the policy, made after an exercise of over two years, will be implemented in the country to facilitate and boost the digital economy.
According to officials at the MoC, the draft e-commerce Policy Framework was finalised after accommodating an earlier recommendation of PM secretariat. The draft was to be submitted to the PM office on April 29, 2018 for approval from the cabinet. “The prime minister had earlier, after examining the draft policy, had instructed the ministry to extend more facilities to flourish digital business instead of focusing on regulating the industry. The PM felt that an increasing number of regulations would resultantly discourage online trading activities,” said the officials.
According to sources, MoC is going to set up a separate cell for facilitating the registration of online firms/organisations instead of leaving the business to the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) as people with small business activities avoid going for the hectic process of registering themselves with the SECP. “A man doing an online business from home will be reluctant to register a firm with the SECP. The proposed facilitation cell at MoC will help people associated with online businesses,” the sources added.
Initially, the sources informed that the e-commerce policy was designed for online business activities at a domestic level. The next phase of the policy will be to facilitate imports and exports via online transactions.
According to documents available with Pakistan Today, the ministry has finalised the draft e-commerce Policy Framework, on the basis of Working Groups’ inputs. On a reference moved by MoC, the Prime Minister’s Office had directed the ministry to frame a comprehensive e-commerce policy after consultation with all stakeholders. As per the directive of the PM, the ministry had constituted a National Advisory Council (NAC) on e-commerce and an E-commerce Policy Unit (ECPU) comprising all relevant public and private sector stakeholders. Technical work on various aspects of the e-commerce policy was undertaken by smaller Working Groups. Furthermore, the Prime Minister directed the creation of a Policy Board headed by Finance Minister keeping in view the interdependencies involved in the policy formulation and implementation framework of e-commerce.
According to the documents, the following parameters/contours of the proposed policy have been identified by the PMO. These include the availability of reliability of ICT platforms, development of supportive financial services regulations, regulatory framework, the establishment of regulation of e-commerce establishments, conducive import/export regulations, taxation issues, coordination, consultation, cooperation, and oversight; and multilateral discipline on e-commerce.
On the basis of recommendations given by stakeholders, the MoC prepared an action plan with the following aspects which included the enactment of the national Law on Consumer Protection which may include provisions for seller protection, specifying rights, obligations, liabilities, and penalties for both sellers and consumers.
It also includes the enactment of Privacy and Data Protection Laws including provisions for e-transaction to enable e-contracts, amendments in the Foreign Exchange Regulations of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to facilitate cross-border electronic transactions, the establishment of dispute resolution mechanism for e-commerce, the formulation of licensing requirements for establishing and operating e-commerce businesses, subsidizing UST rates and other tax relaxations for e-commerce on products where sales are made on online portals in order to encourage online selling, the provision of safe and secure platforms for financial transactions online, the Working Group on e-commerce, WTO and development to constantly liaise with the Permanent Mission of Pakistan to the WTO in order to assist them for the upcoming multilateral discipline on e-commerce, the finalisation of the National Payment Gateway (NPG) for international transactions, the simplification of Import/export procedures and requirements, and border measures and logistics arrangements for the purpose of facilitating e-trade.
