LAHORE: The Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry has urged the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to extend the scope of incentives package to all the export-oriented sectors while small & medium export-oriented industries should be given priority in this regard.
According to a statement issued here, the LCCI President Abdul Basit and Vice President Muhammad Nasir Hameed Khan said that prime minister’s incentive package would go a long way and hopefully will boost the country’s exports by around three billions dollars by the end of ongoing financial year.
They said that prime minister’s package with the incentives for drawback on local taxes and levies and removal of customs duty on basic raw materials at import level would considerably enhance the export volumes.
“Package including removal of custom duty on imports of cotton would greatly help the textile sector to get rid of its miseries. Cotton textile production and apparel manufacturing are Pakistan’s largest industries, accounting for about 66% of the merchandise exports and almost 40% of the employed labour force. Cotton and cotton-based products account for 61% of export earnings of Pakistan.”, they added and said that the package will increase the competitiveness of Pakistani merchandise in the international market and also lower the cost of doing business.
They said that the zero-rated export oriented sectors would achieve the desired goals with the help of incentive package and they would be able to enhance the exports by at least 10 percent.
The LCCI office-bearers said that same incentive package should be announced for all export-oriented industries to triple the national exports within a short span of time. He said that continuous decline in the exports is a matter of concern. He said that volume of exports during July to December 2016 remained 9.912 billion dollars that are 3.82 percent lower than the exports of 10.306 billion dollars during the same period of 2015. They said that despite having all ingredients for economic development performance in exports remaining the below of mark from last couple of years. They said that precious foreign exchange always help any country to economically excel therefore government would have to provide maximum facilities to the all export-oriented industries.
While citing the example of Food Industry, the LCCI office-bearers said that government’s support to this sector could help Pakistan to be a leader in the international market, to generate huge revenue for the government and if all export-oriented industry is given bailout and incentive package, the economic benefits would be out of proportion.
The LCCI office-bearers mentioned rice, fruit & vegetable, furniture, cement, tiles, marble, cutlery, electrical appliances, software, livestock meat, chicken, powdered milk, wheat, seafood and defense equipment sectors where a little attention of the government could do miracles at economic front.
