April 8, 2003	Tuesday	Safar 5, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, April 7: The government is finalizing a package of facilities and incentives for overseas Pakistanis, including permission to import many duty-free items.

Official sources told Dawn here on Monday that following instructions of Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali an impressive package was being finalized jointly by the ministries of finance, labour manpower & overseas Pakistanis and the Overseas Pakistanis Foundation (OPF) for the welfare of expatriates.

A special cell led by a senior additional secretary has also been set up at the Prime Minister’s Secretariat to remove genuine complaints of the overseas Pakistanis. The first meeting of the cell was held on Saturday with the ministries concerned, OPF and Central Board of Revenue (CBR).

Another meeting has been convened on April 11, to review the proposed package to be submitted to Prime Minister’s Adviser on Finance Shaukat Aziz for final approval, sources said. “Hopefully this package will be announced in the next budget,” a source said, adding that an implementation committee led by the additional secretary of finance ministry, Ismail Qureshi, was also formed to ensure various facilities to expatriates.

He said this committee approached the provincial governments with a view to remove various complaints of the overseas Pakistanis on priority.

The sources said the prime minister had called for streamlining the institutional set up for the overseas Pakistanis, especially to help them in their court cases, matters pertaining to police, housing, education and the CBR.

The cell will be proposing seven duty-free items, including airconditioners and deep freezers, under a Gift Allowance Scheme for the expatriates.

The OPF has asked the Ministry of Finance to direct the CBR officials to adhere to an earlier decision of allowing the overseas Pakistanis to bring with them 11 items from abroad by using their silver and gold cards.

The items are airconditioner, cooking range, deep freezer, gas appliances, microwave oven, refrigerator, sewing machine, television set, video cassette player, audio cassette recorder and washing machine.

The government expects to have record $4 billion remittances by June 30. So far, over $3-billion remittances in the first eight months of fiscal 2002-03 have been received.

An official said the government was encouraging expatriates to invest in their country, therefore it had planned to provide various facilities to them.

Some sources said the prime minister had directed to make the OPF more responsive to the needs of overseas Pakistanis by introducing complete transparency in its operations.