Business Recorder/27-02-2020

ISLAMABAD: The government has agreed to withdraw notification of surcharges and taxes on export-oriented industry from January 2019 to June 2020. Now the govt will charge only 7.5 cents per unit tariff to the export-oriented industry. However, an official said that a delegation of APTMA and zero-rated Industries held negotiations with a government team which included Federal Minister for Power and Petroleum Omar Ayub Khan, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs, Hamad Azhar, PM Special Assistant on Petroleum Nadeem Babar, Advisor on Industries and Commerce, Abdul Razaq Dawood and Governor Punjab, Muhammad Sarwar, last evening. The meeting discussed all matters relating to the textile and other zero-rated industries. The meeting successfully resolved all outstanding issues relating to energy tariff. The agreement reached will be budget neutral for Finance Division. It was agreed by all parties that the government will provide a maximum of Rs 20 billion total subsidy for power and petroleum, in the form of cross subsidy and/or allocation, in the next year’s budget. The government showed its resolve to provide all necessary support to these industries for better economic growth of the country.