"This is imperative to compete with the Indian market," Maqsood Ismail, vice president of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), told IANS.

Ismail, who headed the Special Committee on Exports, said this was also necessary to compensate exporters for a host of federal, provincial and local government taxes and cost of utilities that include a huge element of taxes and surcharges.

He pointed out that Pakistani businessmen face a lot of difficulties in getting visas for India. India and Pakistan, he suggested, should ease visa guidelines so as to increase bilateral trade.

Ismail hoped that with the start of the bus service between Lahore andDelhi, bilateral business activity would increase and traders would benefit.

Ismail, here to meet Finance and Commerce Minister Ishaq Dar todiscussmeans to enhance the country's exports, emphasised that Pakistan has to enhance its exports substantially in the next few years to generatesufficient trade surplus to meet the government's debt service obligations.

The committee's recommendations have been divided into two parts. The firstconsists of general recommendations that affect all sectors. These also include structural recommendations such as establishment of an export development authority and restructuring and institutional strengthening ofthe Karachi Export Processing Zone Authority.

There are general fiscal recommendations pertaining to timely refund of duty drawback and sales tax refunds, compensation for various kinds of taxes and levies so as to make outbound trade free of all kinds of taxes, and provision of concessional credit to exporters under refinance and locally manufactured machinery schemes to reduce their production cost. All these incentives and facilities, including rehabilitation of sick industries, are consideredimperative by the committee to make exports competitive in theinternational market, Ismail said.

The second part consists of specific recommendations pertaining to eachsector. "Of these, the most important sector remains textiles, which comprises over 65 per cent of our exports. Three major issues that affect the textile sector pervasively are the cotton policy of the government, quota allocation and value addition," he said.

Textiles are followed by leather products, seafood, sports goods, engineering and other traditional and non- traditional industries. Crucial recommendations include the setting up of an export organisation called theExport Development Authority (EDA) responsible for overall strategy,marketing and research, coordination and monitoring of exports and related services. The authority should be chaired by the prime minister and have an executive vice chairman nominated by the FPCCI. Mark-up on export refinance should be reduced to four per cent for the value added sector and six per centfor others to enable Pakistani exports to compete in the internationalmarket under the present recessionary conditions.

Ismail said banks should also be instructed to provide such credit liberally against hypothecation, stocks and trade debts without any additional margin or security.

The committee suggested that the cost of perfect finance be brought down to less than 14 per cent to reduce the per unit financial cost of products.

Preference should be given to exporters in providing project finance so that the required funds for setting up export-related industries, balancing, modernisation and renovation is conveniently made available.

It suggested that competent commercial officers be posted at Pakistani embassies and consulates abroad and said relevant back-up support needs to be enhanced significantly to ensure better services to exporters.

Electricity tariff, the committee suggested, should be reduced by 30 percent for exporters, as has been done in the case of domestic consumers.

Taxes onprocessing services in export-related industries should be withdrawn forthwith and round-the-clock services be provided at international airports and sea ports for customs clearance.