ISLAMABAD: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Commerce and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood on Tuesday said the Ministry of Commerce was aggressively working on changes in the tariff structure for the upcoming budget for fiscal year 2021.
The tariff structure changes were aimed at facilitating local production, thereby moving towards local manufacturing under the ‘Make in Pakistan Policy’, the Adviser said on Twitter.
Dawood said the government wanted to increase customs duties instead of direct income tax besides documenting non-tax businesses to bring them in the tax net.
He said the government might not change export tariffs and tax slabs in the upcoming budget.
Dawood said the coronavirus had changed the world. “We are reviewing the recent situation. Now the business process will be completely different.”
Such difficult period, he said, always brought out new opportunities, new products, and new ways of thinking. It was a golden opportunity for Pakistan to pursue the ‘Make in Pakistan Policy’, the Adviser added.
He said many businesses were on the verge of closure and many labourers were under the threat of losing their jobs. “Under these circumstances the need of the hour is a policy whereby ‘We don’t import, but make products in Pakistan’.”
Dawood said even in the challenging situation Pakistan had opened various sectors, including information technology and services sectors, which attracted the world to the Pakistani products.
“Pakistan is receiving big orders of face masks and sanitisers. We have also received huge demand of Hydroxychloroquine,” he said, adding Pakistan has exported raw material to Germany and Turkey and one million tablets to Saudi Arabia.
