SIALKOT: The Export Processing Zone (EPZ) of Sialkot has failed to attract industrialists in the last 14 years. Only eight factories have been established there so far though the government offers incentives to exporters for setting up their units in the zone.

The lackluster response from industrialists has prompted Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) President Fazal Jilani, Mir Alamgir Meyer and Pakistan Gloves Manufacturers and Exporters Association Chairman Muhammad Younas and Sheikh Ejaz Ahmed Jammu to appeal to federal and provincial governments to abolish the EPZ and declare the whole Sialkot an EPZ to promote exports from the export triangle of Sialkot, Gujrat and Gujranwala districts.

The EPZ is an initiative of the Export Processing Zone Authority (EPZA), the Ministry of Industries, the Punjab Small Industries Corporation (PSIC) and the SCCI. It is located near Sambrial on Sialkot-Wazirabad Road.

There are 881 plots in the EPZ on 238 acres. The PSIC was responsible for for developing the EPZ and providing public health and estate management services. All plots in the EPZ have been sold. The zone was inaugurated in June 2002 and became operational in 2005.

Presently, only eight industrial units are operational in the EPZ while 10 others are under construction. The export from the EPZ in 2009-10 was $650,000.

Officials say the EPZ offers following incentives to exporters: they can get developed land for 30 years; they can import duty-free machinery, equipment and materials without following national import regulations; they are free from exchange control regulations and can avail repatriation of capital and profits; they are not to pay sales tax on input goods; they are entitled to import duty-free vehicles under certain conditions; and they can sell a portion of goods in domestic market and are to pay presumptive tax at the rate of 1 percent.

Surprisingly, these incentives have failed to attract the exporters to establish their units at the EPZ.

EPZ Authority officials say declaring the whole Sialkot as the EPZ was not a realistic demand considering the fact the EZP offered a range of facilities to industrialists.

Sialkot Customs Collector Qurban Ali Khan, however, is optimistic about reviving the EPZ.

At a meeting of the SCCI, he said more incentives could be offered to exporters for establishing their factories and industrial units at the EPZ. He said the procedures to apply for plot would be simplified.

He said the EPZ Law of 1980 should be amended to promote EPZs in the country.

REBATES: Customs Collector Qurban Ali Khan says surgical instruments exporters will get their pending rebate claims till June 2015. Addressing a group of surgical instruments manufactures and exporters, he added the rebate claims would be cleared till June 2015, as the pendency of such claims was being reduced gradually.

He said Sialkot exporters were earning foreign exchange to the tune of $1.8 billion annually. He pledged to upgrade surgical industry through resolving their problems.

Exporters demanded increase in 4.86 percent ratio of rebate.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2014