No restriction on industries importing raw material, NA told

ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Finance and Revenue Ali Pervaiz Malik on Wednesday informed the National Assembly that under the directions of prime minister, the government has imposed no restriction on industries importing raw material post-International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme finalisation.

He was responding to the question of Mussarat Rafique Mahesar during the Question-Hour session. Malik said the Ministry of Finance post-IMF programme has not imposed any restriction on the raw material import, whereas the government’s efforts for increasing exports were scaled up along with efforts to enhance competitiveness of businesses. Access to finance was being made available so that exporters could meet working capital needs.

In reply to another supplementary query of MNA Dr Shazia Sobia, he said there was a need to ensure distinction between inflation and price hike mechanisms. “The decline in inflation means that the price hike ratio has dropped as commodities’ prices could not be raised at a faster pace. Inflation is the biggest tax for the common man that reduces its purchasing power capacity. The power sector prices are causing negative impact on the masses,” he said.

The minister underlined that the PM Task Force was actively taking up the issue and efforts were underway. However, the power minister should be asked for a detailed workplan to reduce power prices by the assembly.

Earlier, Parliamentary Secretary for Commerce Zulfiqar Ali Bhatti said under the National Tarriff Policy 2019, the government has rationalised 6,500 tariff lines out of the total 7,580 and reduced 2,198 tariff lines to zero. He added that a Rs22 billion relief was given to the industry and traders, and the government was organizing trade expos to improve exports.