The Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry has urged the government to facilitate the manufacturing and exports of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs).
In a statement, LCCI President Irfan Iqbal Sheikh, Senior Vice President Ali Hussam Asghar and Vice President Mian Zahid Jawaid Ahmad said that in the current scenario of economic distress due to COVID-19, hundreds of manufacturing units related to garments, sports goods, textile, plastics and auto industry etc have seen a severe contraction of business in their traditional product lines and are shifting towards manufacturing PPEs. They said that these units have added PPEs as their product lines.
They are providing enough products to cover local demand, and now have capacity for exports. LCCI office-bearers said that Exports of PPE gowns, face masks and face shields etc can easily fetch between 1 to 2 billion dollars if allowed. Inaction in this regard would result in surrendering this tremendous export opportunity to India, Cambodia and Bangladesh, which has a short window to capture market share.
They said that to facilitate the local industry in manufacturing PPEs, they should be provided with a level playing field. The Sales Tax exemption which was granted to imports and subsequent sale of PPEs through SRO 237(I) 2020 dated 20th March 2020 should also be granted to local Manufacturing.
They said that a major obstacle in manufacturing of PPEs, in this emergency, is the process of registration with Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) which takes a long time. They said that the local manufacturers of Class-A medical devices be exempted from operation of “Medical Devices Rules 2017” notified via S.R.O 32(I)/2018 dated 16th January 2018 for a period 24 months or till the government notifies control on Covid-19.
