20000107

Dawood to

chair EDF

board meeting

on 11th

RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: The Board of Directors of Export Development Fund (EDF) will meet in Karachi on January 11, 2000 under the chairmanship of Minister of Commerce Abdul Razak Dawood to discuss demands worth millions of rupees for the establishment and expansion of leather and textile technical training centres in Lahore and Karachi.

This is the first time that the EDF Board will meet in Karachi. The last meeting was held in March 1999 in Islamabad and the next meeting was delayed due to the change of government in the country.

The funds proposals to be discussed at the meeting are related to the Textile University, Leather Institute in Lahore; Korangi Affluent Treatment Plant; Readymade Garments Institute in Lahore, expansion of Towel Institute in Karachi and expansion of few other projects.

The EDF is financed from 0.25 percent export development surcharge on every export shipments made from Pakistan. It is used for promotion of exports mainly for holding fairs locally and participating in international fairs and exhibitions.

Since the collection of export surcharge is a continouos process an estimated Rs. 120 million had already accumulated in the EDF. The trade has recently raised a demand that the realisation of the surcharge should be suspended for some time to help exporters presently faced with the liquidity problem. The concession can be used by them to make their products more competitive in the export market.

The Council of Textile Associations (CTA) has recently demanded that the export surcharge should be deducted from the export proceeds against the present practice of charging the levy at the time of shipment. This will save exporters from payment of surcharge in cases where the goods could not be shipped for any reasons.

The exporters are also demanding a mechanism for the refund of export surcharge in case of double payment in cases where the goods shunted out from one port are presented at the other port for shipment through some other vessels after making payment of the surcharge again.