He said government was well-aware of the difficulties of exporters and was taking all possible steps to facilitate them. He said value-added apparel sector contributes the largest share in the national exports and deserves government's highest attention. He said exporters are playing key role to strengthen the economy and supporting the government to curtail trade deficit.
He was of the view government should meet the sector-specific associations to learn about their problems and issues rather than relying on 2 or 3 trade bodies which claim themselves to represent the entire business community. He further assured he would send recommendations to Commerce & Textile Division to revive the role of value-added textile Associations as in the previous Duty Drawback of Taxes scheme, the Associations were asked to verify claims of its member exporters before submission to the Government.
Rana Afzal acknowledged the contribution of value-added textile sector towards overall exports of the country and said that extension in GSP Plus facility is a big achievement of the government for which, the Commerce Ministry has done commendable efforts.
"Alongside refunds, the government is also considering enhancing tax slab for existing business and salaried class from existing rupees 0.4 million to Rs 0.8 million," he said, adding that reduction in corporate tax from 30 percent to 20% is also under consideration in order to enhance the tax base.
He said government was making efforts to overcome the revenue shortfall by bringing new taxpayers into the tax net. He said government would announce an Amnesty Scheme for Overseas Pakistan by mid-March to declare their assets, he revealed.
Talking about the rising borrowing, he said that the country have to pay some $3 billion before June against foreign debts for which, fresh soft borrowings shall be made at lowest possible rates.
He further said revenue collection has remarkably increased by 20 percent and resultantly, the development portfolio has also increased as provinces are now getting bigger share.
The Minister said economic indicators have been improved and fresh FDI inflows and foreign buyers are also coming to Pakistan. He said with long term measures in the energy sector, the energy price would reduce by 5 cents per unit henceforth would have an impact on cost of doing business.
In his welcome address, Pakistan Apparel Forum chairman and chief coordinator PHMA Jawed Bilwani apprised Rana of manifold problems among them liquidity crunch was on the top which was hampering the pace of export efficiency in the wake of stuck up refunds of billions of rupees, which include Sales Tax, DLTL, Customs Rebate, Withholding Tax Claims etc.
He urged him all Custom Rebate Claims must be released through State Bank of Pakistan at the time of realization and payment of export proceeds. It is essential Government must reduce the highest cost of manufacturing at par with regional competing countries and introduce separate tariff/heads of accounts for textile industry.
Bilwani was of the view if the government had decided to pay all the refunds instead of circular debts, the situation would be different leading to exports enhancement and employment generation.
He said during the last 11 years under the textile policies and packages, a total sum of Rs 399 billion were announced out of which, only Rs 52 billion have been released which is only 13% of the amount pledged by the government. He also demanded to transform zero-rating SRO into an Act to give it permanent legitimate protection.
Chairman and Zonal Chairmen of PHMA; Tariq Munir, Naeem Ahmed, Junaid Makda, Khawaja Usman, Rafiq Godil, Arshad Aziz and other leading textile exporters also attended the meeting.