Summary Minister for Commerce Khurram Dastgir Khan briefed the National Assembly.
ISLAMABAD (Web Desk) - The National Assembly was informed today (Thursday) that over 4.6 billion rupees revenue has been collected from border trade during the last financial year, the Radio Pakistan reported.
Minister for Commerce Khurram Dastgir Khan told the House during question hour that the revenue has been increased due to steps taken by the government in cooperation with custom authorities to check smuggling and facilitate legal trade.
The Minister pointed out that the government has exceeded to TIR Convention 1975 which is soon to be operationalised.
He hoped that China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and TIR convention will help expand the transit, bilateral and regional trade in future which will have a positive impact on Pakistan’s economy.
To a question, he said there is no evidence of shifting textile units to other countries. He said from October last year there is zero electricity load-shedding for industrial sector. He said from March this year uninterrupted gas is being supplied to industrial sector which will help enhance industrial production and exports. He hoped that textile exports will increase as result of measures taken in the budget of the current financial year.
Answering a question, Khurram Dastgir told the House that e-commerce policy will soon be announced in which measures will be taken to also increase exports of handicrafts.
He said there is a major increase in export of handicraft to the United States.
Commerce Minister further said both Pakistan and Afghanistan are members of South Asia Free Trade Agreement and under this arrangement Pakistan is maintaining a sensitive list of 938 items. Except for the items on the sensitive list, all other items are importable into Pakistan from SAFTA countries including Afghanistan at tariff rate between zero to five percent. He said under SAFTA, Afghanistan is also maintaining a sensitive list of 850 items.
Khurram Dastgir told the House that as a matter of policy, Pakistan has granted Most Favored Nation [MFN] status to all countries except Israel and India.
