Pre-budget seminar held, proposals given to boost exports
Islamabad
The government on Tuesday assured exporters that zero rating regime for five major exporting sectors including textile, leather, sports goods, surgical goods and carpets would continue for the upcoming budget 2017-18.
“We will continue zero rating regime for five major export oriented sectors in order to boost exports,” Special Assistant to PM on Revenues Haroon Akhtar Khan, who was chief guest, told a pre-budget seminar on “Budget for Export Growth” organised by Ministry of Commerce here on Tuesday. The exporters from all over the country attended the seminar and proposed required steps for taking into the upcoming budget for boosting dwindling exports.
Top guns of all concerned ministries including Finance Division, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), National Tariff Commission, TDAP and others attended the meeting. The recommendations finalised in today’s conference will be forwarded to budget makers for incorporating into the next financial year aiming at increasing exports.
However, the SBP openly opposed dual exchange rate for specific sectors in order to boost exports saying this policy prescription was unacceptable.
The representative of All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) Shahid Sattar criticised the policy of dollarisation of the economy and said that the cost of doing business in terms of utility prices needs to be brought down. He said that the misuse of Duty and Tax Remission for Exports (DTRE) was continued as Rs15 billion was stuck up in the FBR.
Mohammad Younus Dagha, the Secretary Commerce welcomed the participants of the seminar and informed that the objective of this seminar was to provide an opportunity to the private sector stakeholders to present their trade related proposals to the public-sector policy makers. He expressed that the Ministry of Commerce had been categorically backing the views of the export sector on the policy choices besides other factors which have been affecting the competitiveness. Therefore, he had visited personally the exporters in Karachi and Lahore to receive budget proposals for export growth.
He revealed that majority of the budget proposals received in Ministry of Commerce related to tariff, sales tax refunds and customs rebates. Therefore, he personally took the initial set of proposals to the chairman FBR, who kindly agreed to favourably process all the proposals. Mohammad Younus Dagha presented the following proposals on behalf of the stakeholders.
First proposal was the pending Sales Tax Refunds of the export sectors may be paid and a mechanism for time-bound processing of refunds may be devised. The stuck-up refunds is the single-most important reason, stated by the stakeholders, for decline in exports as it is affecting the liquidity and cost of finance for the export sector. Secondly, the Refund Payment Orders (RPOs) which have been recently rolled back on the grounds that the refund of sales tax on packaging material has also been claimed in violation of the understanding between the exporters and the government at the time of negotiation of PM’s Package for Exports. The RPOs may be re-approved expeditiously after deducting the disputed amount which may be settled separately.