Gawadar Export Processing Zone not approved

[Naveed Yaseen]

ISLAMABAD: The government has refused to accord approval to Gawadar Export Processing Zone (GEPZ) seeking huge incentives including 20 years tax holiday, saying that the government wants to end the tax exemption culture from the country.

“The decision to refuse the Gawadar Export Processing Zone (GEPZ) with huge incentives came in a meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) held here on Tuesday with Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani,” a senior official who attended the meeting told The News.

He said, “The Ministry of Industries and Production had submitted a summary to the ECC for approval of a lucrative package of incentives to attract investment for the GEPZ. In the meeting, Governor State Bank of Pakistan Dr Shamshad Akhtar and Chairman FBR Waqar Ahmad strongly opposed the proposal seeking huge tax exemptions, arguing that if it goes on with the same exemptions, then who will pay the tax. They said that there is a dire need to expand the taxation base in the country.”

In the summary, Ministry of Industries also sought the permission for export of production from the zone to tariff area of the country up to 80 per cent on the payment of normal duties. The package also included zero-rated sales tax on supply of construction materials to the GEPZ investors or development of zone infrastructure. It also included exemption from stamp duty and exemption from import policy orders issued from time to time.

The official said that the ECC also did not subscribe the view of the Ministry of Industries, rather the meeting constituted a committee comprising Advisor to Industry, Deputy Chairman Planning Commission and top officials of the Ministry of Finance and FBR. The committee would look into the demand and furnish its own recommendations in this regard, which would be taken up in the next meeting of the ECC.

In addition to this, ECC also gave a green signal to Fatima fertilisers for 75 mmcf per day gas for its plant that is to be operational on November 2009. The official said that Fatima Fertilisers also sought 35 mmcf per day gas to run its plant on full capacity to produce 1.58 million tonnes of fertiliser, as under the existing allocation it can only produce 1.068 million tonnes of fertiliser.

However, the officials from Ministry of Water and Power sought the allocation of the same amount of gas for 100MW of power plant installed by the same Fatima fertiliser company near Okara. On this, the ECC meeting again constituted a committee consisting of Advisor to Industries, Deputy Chairman Planning Commission, and Ministry of Water and Power to look into the matter and come up with a feasible solution.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=137547