Addressing problems: FPCCI advises rice exporters to prepare proposal

Document to discuss problems of export proceeds, freight rates.

KARACHI:

Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) President Zakaria Usman has advised Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) to prepare a comprehensive proposal to prepare its case to present to the government.

The proposal will discuss problems related to export proceeds and charging of different freight rates at different rupee-dollar parity by shipping companies due to non-monitoring of Foreign Exchange Policy by the central bank.

He discussed the issue while talking to a REAP delegation that met him on Thursday and discussed different issues of the rice industry.

For the document, Usman asked REAP to include rice as a traditional item in zero-rated sales tax regime like textile, leather, surgical goods, sports goods and carpet industrial sub-sectors.

He asked the association members to prepare the proposal ahead of State Bank of Pakistan governor’s scheduled visit to FPCCI shortly.

He also urged the shipping companies to reduce container charges for rice as it is a low-value and high volume item compared to other value-added goods like textile.

Usman, responding to the poor services extended by the container terminal operators (CTOs) during examination of goods by Anti Narcotic Force (ANF) at ports, informed that the FPCCI had recently organised two joint meetings of all the stakeholders involved in these processes at ports.

During the meeting, traders, regional directorate of ANF; port operating companies (KICT, PICT and QICT), KPT; PQA, SBP mutually decided that CTOs would either hire sufficient trained and skilled manpower for the improvement in their services or outsource it to a third party with professional expertise in re-packing of goods and re-stuffing in containers, he said.

The FPCCI president also asked the delegation to prepare its proposal seeking financial assistance from the Export Development Fund (EDF) for the development of a steady line from K-Electric feeders to their cluster area to ensure smooth supply of power.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 7^th, 2014.

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