ISLAMABAD   -  National Assembly Standing Committee on Industries and Production has expressed concerns over the taxes levied on the industrial sector by the federal government. The meeting of the Standing Committee on Industries & Production was held under the chairmanship of Syed Hafeez ud Din, MNA. The committee has decided to call Chairman Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) in order to brief the Committee about the taxes levied on the industry. The committee has also sought support of the government to waive off the taxes on industrial sector for its revival. The Secretary Ministry briefly apprised the Committee about working and performance of the Ministry and its attached departments. While briefing about the Pakistan Steel Mill (PSM), he said that in the meetings of Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) headed by the Prime Minister was decided to declare the PSM as scrap as it was nearly impossible to revive the PSM with existing infrastructure and out-dated technology however, they further decided that the land of PSM would be utilized for establishment of Special Economic Zone. He further stated that two Special Economic Zone of 500 and 700 acers of land were established respectively and on the request of Chief Minister, Sindh the 700 acers additional land was allocated to the provincial government for the re-establishment of state of art Steel Mill with modern technology and infrastructure. He also stated that Ministry has accorded approval for disconnection of gas supply to the Pakistan Steel Mills on 30th June, 2024 in order to prevent the national exchequers with the additional cost of approximately Rs. 2.5 billion.

 On the request of the Federal Minister for Industries & Production, the Committee decided to hold the separate meeting on the Pakistan Steel Mill (PSM). The MD Utility Store Corporation (USC) briefly apprised the Committee about the functions, performance and problems faced the management of USC. He stated that Utility Store Corporation was established in 1971 under the Companies Act, 2017 with the mandate to provide subsidized food items to the targeted beneficiaries. He further stated that USC has opened approximately 6000 stores all over the country out of which 4775 are functional in all the provinces of the country. He further stated that in last financial year as per Prime Minister relief package, Rs22.53 billion was allocated to USC however, Rs12.47 billion was reserved for Ramzan Relief Package. Now, this year around Rs. 60 billion was allocated for the USC for the provision of subsidized food items to the beneficiaries and it is likely to be approved by the Federal Cabinet.

 After listening to the briefing of Utility Stores Corporation, they came to the conclusion that this is a huge subject and need to look into things in depth, so the committee decided to hold a separate meeting on Utility Store Corporation in which all matters will be reviewed in detail and the committee has issued instructions to MD, USC to submit all its Audit Reports before the committee in the next meeting.

Besides the Federal Minister for Industries and Production, the following MNAs namely Shahid Usman, Sajid Mehdi, Ms Kiran Imran Dar, Dr Mahesh Kumar Malani, Muhammad Saad Ullah, Rana Atif, Muhammad Arshad Sahi, and the officials of the Ministry attended the meeting.