1 (9Th Session) NATIONAL ASSEMBLY SECRETARIAT
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1 (9th Session) NATIONAL ASSEMBLY SECRETARIAT ————— “QUESTIONS FOR ORAL ANSWERS AND THEIR REPLIES” to be asked at a sitting of the National Assembly to be held on Monday, the 3rd March, 2014 (Originally Starred Question Nos. 34, 58, 151, 184, 188, 190, 201, 203 and 204 were set down for answer during the 8th Session) 34. Admissibility is being re-considered. 58. *Dr. Ramesh Kumar Vankwani: Will the Minister for Commerce be pleased to state: (a) whether it is a fact that the National Horticulture Policy has not been formulated by the Ministry so far; if so, the reasons thereof; and (b) whether there is any proposal under consideration of the Government to formulate the said policy; if so, when it will be implemented? Minister for Commerce (Engr. Khurram Dastgir Khan): (a), (b) The subject of formulation of National Horticulture Policy does not fall under the ambit of Ministry of Commerce; rather it pertains to Ministry of National Food Security & Research and Provincial Governments. @151. *Nafeesa Inayatullah Khan Khattak: Will the Minister for Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development be pleased to state: —————————————————————————————— @Transferred from Interior Division. 2 (a) whether it is a fact that the number of Pakistani expatriates has increased during the last two years; if so, the details alongwith the year-wise ratio thereof; and (b) the total number of Pakistani expatriates living abroad at present alongwith the country wise details thereof? Minister for Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development (Pir Syed Sadaruddin Shah Rashidi) : (a) Yes. —————————————————————————————— Numbers of Pakistanis Expatriates during the last two years —————————————————————————————— 2011 2012 Percentage Change (%) —————————————————————————————— 6,286,915 7,422,200 (+)15.30 —————————————————————————————— (b) Total number of Overseas Pakistanis living/working/ studying are 7.422 million as on 31-12-2012. The data is obtained from Pakistan’s Mission abroad through Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Country-wise details are at Annex-A. (Annexure has been placed in the National Assembly Library) 184. *Belum Hasnain: Will the Minister for Commerce be pleased to state: (a) the authority who allocates the export quota of sugar at present alongwith the prescribed procedure thereof; (b) whether it is a fact that the outstanding amount of sugar cane growers worth Rs. billion is not being cleared by the sugar exporters; (c) if so, the steps taken by the Government in this regard? Minister for Commerce (Engr. Khurram Dastgir Khan): (a) State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) in pursuance of the decision of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet allocates the export quota of sugar. SBP vide its Circular Letter No. 10/EPP.1(51)-Sugar-2013 dated 30th September, 2013 has 3 advised authorized banks to process the cases for allocation of sugar export quota as per following mechanism (Annex-I):— i. Receipt of a minimum 25% of total contract value as advance payment (evidencing by advance payment voucher, swift message and reporting schedule/credit advice) and exporter must ship the sugar within 45 days from the date of SBP approval. ii. Obtaining an irrevocable L/C from the buyer and exporter must ship the sugar within 45 days from the date of SBP approval. iii. Banks will forward the requests of Sugar Mills alongwith attested photocopies of clearance issued by the concerned Cane Commissioner to the concerned sugar mill, Contract, E-Form, irrevocable L/C or advance payment voucher, swift message and reporting schedule/credit advice, as the case may be, for SBP approval. iv. All requests should be addressed to the Director, Exchange Policy Department, State Bank of Pakistan, I.I. Chundrigar Road, Karachi with reference to the related F.E. Circular Letter on the subject. v. SBP will allow permission against each E-Form on first come first served basis. vi. Bank will send sugar export update to the Director, Exchange Policy Department, State Bank of Pakistan, I.I. Chundrigar Road, Karachi on daily basis. vii. Incomplete requests will not be considered. (b) Ministry of Industries & Production has informed that out of total outstanding amount of Rs. 216.95 billion, a total amount of Rs.216.88 billion (99.97%) has been paid to the sugarcane growers by the sugar mills for season 2012-13. (c) According to the Ministry of Industries & Production, the Provincial Cane Commissioners under the Provincial Agriculture Departments are responsible for ensuring payment to the sugarcane growers and due to their efforts 99.97% payments have been paid to the sugarcane growers for season 2012-13. (Annexure has been placed in the National Assembly Library) 4 188. *Nighat Parveen Mir: Will the Minister for Commerce be pleased to state the details of those new trade markets for which the European Union countries have given access to Pakistan during the period from March, 2008 till date alongwith the sector-wise details of trade with each country thereof? Minister for Commerce (Engr. Khurram Dastgir Khan): European Union had granted duty free access to Pakistan through following two arrangements since 2008 in all the 27 now 28 countries: i. Autonomous Trade Preferences (ATPs) which gave duty free access to 75 products from 15th November, 2012 to 31st December, 2013. As a result of ATPs there has been an increase of US$ 425 million during the period January – October, 2013.Pakistan’s exports to EU on 75 products from January to October 2013 amounted to US$ 1.69 billion. Pakistan’s exports on these products for the corresponding period in 2012 had been US$ 1.27 billion. • The exports of products under ATPs grew by 33% • The extent of Quota utilization has been as under so far —————————————————————————————— Quota Utilization Number of Products —————————————————————————————— 100% or more 18 75% - 99% 21 65% - 74% 11 50% - 64% 11 Less than 50% 14 —————————————————————————————— • Of overall increase in exports to EU of US$ 506 Million, increase due to ATPs on 75 products amounted to US$ 425 Million. Hence more than 80% of increase in exports to EU has been due to ATPs? • The share of ATPs in our total exports to EU grew from 27% to 32% during the same period? 5 ii. GSP Plus from 1st January, 2014 onwards. This results in duty free access to Pakistan on more than 90% products of our interests. It is expected that Pakistan’s exports shall increase by atleast US$ 1.5 billion by 2014. Pakistani products had been facing high tariffs under the General Arrangement since 2005. Hence our products were becoming uncompetitive vis-a-vis those from Bangladesh (being least developed country) had duty free access, Sri Lanka (had GSP Plus) and China which had competitive advantage due to economies of scale. The sectors that are likely to benefit as a result of duty free access to Pakistan include intermediary textile goods like fabric and yarn, textile garments including hosiery, home textiles including bed, table, kitchen and toilet linen, articles of leather, ethyl alcohol, footwear and plastics. PAKISTAN’S TRADE WITH EU COUNTRIES Value in thousand US$ —————————————————————————————— Countries 2012-2013 ———————————————— Export Import —————————————————————————————— Austria 17,748 97,370 Belgium 496,665 219,116 Bulgaria 12,871 16,589 Cyprus 3,429 1,806 Czech Republic 269,57 21,594 Denmark 92,433 303,023 Estonia 31,620 45,623 Finland 77,223 54,925 France 956,317 418,560 Germany 967,040 1,349,914 Greece 48,427 41,143 Hungary 10,463 21,882 Ireland 45,685 41,216 Italy 538,335 469,554 Latvia 18,359 1,885 Lithuania 44,879 14,062 —————————————————————————————— 6 Value in thousand US$ —————————————————————————————— Countries 2012-2013 ———————————————— Export Import —————————————————————————————— Luxembourg 172 8,146 Malta 2,467 317 Netherlands 494,660 274,077 Poland 79,465 57,501 Portugal 129,000 13,859 Romania 20,948 45,029 Slovakia Republic 6,918 25,508 Slovenia 25,171 10,729 Spain 527,139 159,553 Sweden 101,481 195,837 United Kingdom 1,253,100 711,930 —————————————————————————————— Sector Wise details of trade with each country is at Annex-I (Annexure has been placed in the National Assembly Library) 190. *Begum Tahira Bukhari: Will the Minister for Commerce be pleased to state: (a) whether it is a fact that Afghanis are running heavy business in Pakistan without any registration; and (b) whether there is any proposal under consideration of the Ministry to launch Kafeel (sponsorship) system in Pakistan like other countries; if so, when it will be implemented? Transferred to Interior Division for answer on next Rota Day. 7 201. *Syed Asif Hasnain: Will the Minister for States and Frontier Regions be pleased to state the total number of Drone attacks made in the country during the last five years till date alongwith the number of persons killed therein? Transferred to Defence Division for answer on next Rota Day. 203. *Dr. Muhammad Azhar Khan Jadoon: Will the Minister for Commerce be pleased to state: (a) the total number of cases of corruption registered in Trade Development Authority during the year 2012-13 till date; and (b) the action being taken against the responsibles? Minister for Commerce (Engr. Khurram Dastgir Khan): (a) A total of sixty-eight (68) FIRs have been registered so far by the FIA Crime Circle Karachi (CCK). (b) The FIA has so far arrested following accused persons in this regards:— 1. Mr. Tariq lqbal Puri, Ex-Chief Executive, TDAP 2. Mr. Abid Javed Akbar, Ex-Chief Executive, TDAP 3. Mr. Javed Anwar Khan, Ex-Secretary, TDAP 4. Mr. Abdul Karim Daudpota, Ex-Director General, TDAP (now OSD on the strength of Ministry of Commerce and also enquiry under E&D Rules, 1973 is being conducted against the officer). 5. Mr. Mirchoomal Khatri, Project Officer, TDAP (Under suspension). 6. Mr. Muhammad Rafi, MS Vision Match Trading Int.