PESHAWAR              -          In pursuance to the deci­sion of the provincial cabi­net and state of emergency declared in the wake of coro­navirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the Secretary Industries, Com­merce and Technical Educa­tion Department, Khyber Pakh­tunkhwa, has constituted a task force under his supervision to evaluate the overall impact, in­cluding production losses and unemployment due to the coro­na virus, on the industrial sec­tor in the province, said a notifi­cation issued here Saturday.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Eco­nomic Zones Development and Management Company (KP-EZDMC), Javed Iqbal, was nominated as chairman of the task force, while other mem­bers include CEO KP-BoIT, Di­rector Industries, Managing Director, Small Industries De­velopment Board (SIDB) and Project Director (PD) Econom­ic Revitalization of KP and FATA (ERKF) project while Manag­er Estate (KP-EZDMC) as sec­retary.

The task force would propose measures to mitigate various types of losses and fiscal incen­tives to government for recovery of industrial sector.

The task force has started functioning and submitted its recommendations to the Secre­tary Industries for exempting various industries from the ob­servance of holidays, which had formally notified their exemp­tion.

The exempted industries in­clude oil and ghee and its allied industries like tin manufactur­ing, printing, packaging and plastic poach packing while flour and its allied industry of polypropylene have also been exempted from the lockdown.

Similarly, bottled water & bev­erages and their allied indus­tries including plastic & glass bottle making, bottle cap mak­ing, seals making and printing and packaging were also ex­empted.

Similarly, the exempted ag­riculture sector units are also included pesticides, fertiliz­er and seeking making while cement factories of Lakki, Ko­hat, Cherat, Nizampur and two units of Hattar were also ex­empted of the holidays. Six sugar mills of Peshawar, Mar­dan and D.I. Khan were ex­empted.

Furthermore, tobacco pro­cessing units and cigarettes manufacturing units of Pesha­war, Charsadda, Nowshera, Mar­dan and Swabi were also ex­empted from the holidays