KARACHI, April 10: Federal Minister for Industries and Production Liaquat Ali Jatoi has invited the business community to attend his ministry's 'Advisory Committee Meeting' in Islamabad on April 14.

The meeting is slated to focus on various economic issues and problems besides holding discussions on 2004-2005 budget.

Addressing the members of Pakistan Soap Manufacturers Association (PSMA) on Saturday, he said the businessmen would be free to present their viewpoint in the meeting where all the top officials of federal ministries would be present.

He said the issues raised by the PSMA chief regarding smuggling, under-invoicing, excise duty, dry ports, etc, would be discussed in the meeting. Mr Jatoi himself will preside over it. Besides, the meeting would also focus on pre-budget rationalization of tariffs.

The minister said that he would personally take up the issue of smuggling and under-invoicing of foreign products, especially soaps, with the new Central Board of Revenue chief so that steps could be taken to provide incentives to the local industries.

He said the budget was round the corner and every association and trade body should now send its recommendations so that these could be considered before being made part of a budgetary decision.

The government, he added, was striving hard to take such steps that could prevent the entry of foreign goods through illegal channels.

He said Pakistan's economic indicators "have been showing positive signs" and were evident in the rising industrial growth, exports, and $12.5 billion worth of foreign exchange reserves, etc.

Earlier, PSMA chairman M. Yaqub Karim said the menace of smuggling and the Afghan Transit Trade were hitting the soap makers hard. Previously, soap was deleted from the ATT list but recently "it has again been included in the list."

He said the soap imported under this facility "is either off-loaded before its entry into Afghanistan or the shipment comes back to our markets without paying any taxes."

He said these soap bars are then openly sold in the country at little more than half the price of the locally produced soap. Smuggling via Dubai, Iran and Balochistan is going on unchecked.

He said under-invoicing "is yet another termite" for the local soap industry. To avoid various levies the importers declare less than half the actual value of their products on the invoices. In this way, their landed cost happens to be cheaper "than our cost of production".

The PSMA chief said that dry ports should facilitate manufacturers only, to clear their raw materials and no commercial companies should be allowed to use the dry port facilities.

The soap makers are paying excise duty that results in cost escalation and creates room for smuggling and under-invoicing, he said.