KARACHI, July 26: The steering committee on freight subsidy scheme held its first meeting on Saturday to work out procedure for the freight subsidy, which will be notified shortly for the benefit of exporters.

The meeting was chaired by the minister of state and chairman Export Promotion Bureau, Tariq Ikram and attended by all the stakeholders.

In order to make the scheme fool-proof as well as user-friendly issues related to claiming of freight subsidy, the procedure for payment of freight subsidy and audit of the scheme were discussed at length.

The government has decided to continue with the freight subsidy scheme introduced in last year’s trade policy (2002-03), which allowed 25 per cent freight subsidy on export of new products and to new markets.

Therefore, it was strongly felt to review the procedures and, if necessary, changes should be made to make it more effective as well as fool-proof and notify them for the benefit of exporters.

The meeting was attended by representatives of customs, State Bank, National Bank of Pakistan, Fruits and Vegetables Exporters Association and Pakistan Banks Association.