June 4, 2003	Wednesday	Rabi-us-Sani 3, 1424

KARACHI, June 3: Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (Unisame) has sought increase in tax exemption limit to Rs150,000 for small and medium enterprises in the forthcoming budget.

In a meeting held under the chairmanship of convener, export facilitation committee of Unisame, Shaikh Arshad Mehmood, it was also urged upon the State Bank to tailor separate prudential regulations for SMEs.

It was also demanded that a separate passport with at least 200 pages should be issued to the exporters so that they could enjoy VIP treatment for obtaining visa for any destination in the world on urgent basis. Special concession on PIA fares should be given to the holders of these passports as they frequently travel around the world for the promotion of Pakistani products, the meeting demanded.

Unisame also suggested that exporters carrying these passports should also be given hotel facilities at concessional rates as was the case with the PIA crew. Furthermore, immigration authorities should be responsive to clear exporters holding such passports.

The exporters should be rewarded by extending special telephone with low rates and having 24 hours international call facility, which could be used for fax or calls to their buyers the world over. The one-window facility should be given to the exporters so that they can easily pay their entire outstanding dues against the government levies such as EOBI, social security, water and sewerage charges, fire department, etc. About 32 agencies collect such levies.

The Union has also demanded special appreciation identity cards for exporters giving tax over Rs1 million per annum to the national exchequer. All these facilities will cost little extra to the government, but it would provide extraordinary results and help in facilitating and promoting exports.