ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has assured the newspaper industry that the five per cent regulatory duty on import of newsprint will be withdrawn and the pending bills of electronic media will be scrutinised by the Ministry of Information.
The prime minister gave the assurance during a meeting with a joint delegation of the All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS), Pakistan Broadcasters Association (PBA) and the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) on Wednesday.
He said government advertisements would not be stopped, but the volume might be cut down.
Imran Khan was assisted by Information Minister Fawad Chaudhary, Senator Faisal Javed, Iftikhar Durrani and Sheikh Rashid, who was information minister more than a decade ago.
The decision to abolish the regulatory duty requires approval from the federal cabinet. After that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) will issue a Statuary Regulatory Order (SRO) for implementation of zero regulatory duty.
The meeting also discussed the clearance of an amount of Rs8 billion outstanding against the government for advertisements published in newspapers.
The PBA members sought acceleration of the verification process for bills pending in government departments since long. The government side assured them that the verification process for clearance of all audited bills would be speeded up.
The prime minister tried to remove apprehensions of electronic media over reports that the government intended to stop advertisements on television channels.
