Staff Reporter
Islamabad
Advisor to the Prime Minister on Commerce and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood on Tuesday said the Ministry of Commerce was aggressively working on changes in the tariff structure for the upcoming budget.
The tariff structure changes were aimed at facilitating local production thereby moving towards local manufacturing under the ‘Make in Pakistan Policy’, the adviser posted on his Twitter handle.
He said the government wanted to increase customs duties instead of direct income tax. It also wanted to document the non-tax businesses and bring them in tax net.
The advisor said the government might not change export tariffs and tax slabs in the upcoming budget (2020-21).
He said the coronavirus had changed the world. “We are reviewing the recent situation, now the business process will be completely different.”
Such difficult period, he said, always brought out new opportunities, new products, and new ways of thinking. It was a golden opportunity for Pakistan to pursue the “Make in Pakistan Policy”.
He said many businesses were on the verge of closure and many labourers were under the threat of losing their jobs. “Under these circumstances the need of the hour is a policy whereby ‘We do not import, but make products in Pakistan’.”
Razak Dawood said even in the challenging situation Pakistan had opened various sectors, including information technology and services sectors, which attracted the world to the Pakistan products.
He said Pakistan was receiving big orders of face masks and sanitizers. “We have also received huge demand of Hydroxychloroquine and Pakistan has exported raw material to Germany and Turkey and 1000,000 tablets to Saudi Arabia,” he added.
