Federal Minister for Commerce Malik Pervez on Wednesday gave assurances to the delegation of All Pakistan Customs Agents Association (APCAA) at a meeting to consider their suggestions on RD and EIF limit. Talking to Business Recorder, Arshad Jamal chairman APCAA Supreme Council said the commerce minister during a meeting with a delegation headed by Ch Amjad patron-in-chief APCAA flanked by other members at his office here assured to give instructions to the FBR to coordinate with APCAA on Regulatory Duty and Electronic I-Form issues and consider association's recommendations in this regard for practical implementation.

Arshad said that APCAA delegation had earlier informed the minister that they cited two points, which badly affecting the industries during meeting with Finance Committee, National Assembly and requested the committee to ponder the same, which were as under:

To release all consignments where the BL's were issued or LC was established before the issuance of the said SRO. To revisit the items included in SRO 1035/17 which hurt the industries in terms of increasing cost of doing business and exclude those industrial items from RD regime, which are not manufactured in Pakistan.

The APCAA during meeting also suggested extending EIF limit from $ 10,000 and above as this relaxation would not only ease the pressure from Central Bank but also increase foreign reserves. This relaxation will promote exports and industrialization in Pakistan, which may help minimizing trade deficit and also revive the country's economy. The APCAA delegation urged the minister to exclude LED lights, artificial leather shoes & slippers, items fall under SRO 1125 and raw material or article imported by local industries for manufacturing purposes from RD regime in order to facilitate the trade at maximum.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2017