KARACHI, Feb 25: The local television assemblers fear collapse of the industry, besides unemployment of over 30,000 people in case the government signs an agreement with the Afghan government to remove TV from the negative list of Afghan Transit Trade Agreement (ATTA).

Reports say that the government has in principle agreed to reduce the number of items from 24 to 12 from the negative list of items under the ATTA, which also include television sets.

“The local industry has recently made huge investments to modernize their units towards automation, expansion and for creation of new facilities for the integration,” Pakistan Electronics Manufacturers Association (PEMA) chairman Sarfarazuddin had informed Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan on February 24.

Any change in the ATTA policy will seriously damage the local industry, besides causing job losses of over 30,000 peoples, who are directly employed in the nine industries. More than 100,000 people are indirectly employed through this industry.

The items currently on the negative list i.e TV sets and electronic products must not be removed from it, the PEMA chief said. The requirement of the Afghan government, if any, could be met by the local television industry which are assembling and manufacturing world class popular brands with international quality and warranty.

He recalled that in 1996-97, large scale smuggling from Afghanistan had completely eaten up the market share of local assemblers as the sets imported by Afghanistan under the ATTA were smuggled back into Pakistan. Most of these consignments in fact never crossed the border.

In 1996-97, production of TV declined to 72,000 units, thus contributing revenue of Rs290 million, against a market of 600,000-700,000 sets. The gap of 500,000-600,000 was filled by the smuggled TV sets.

He said due to the government’s support, the industry managed to cross 450,000 sets in 2001-2002, thus providing revenue of Rs778 million. In July-December 2002-03, TV production ranged between 280,000 to 285,000 units. “We expect to touch production of 625,000 units at the end of 2002-03 with a revenue contribution of over Rs1 billion because of introduction of consumer finance scheme for the locally assembled products,” Sarfarazuddin said.