Lahore: The federal government has decided to revise its incentive for the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a news source reported. For this purpose, it has begun the consultative process to identify and resolve the pending issues.
According to Board of Investment (BOI) sources, the government wants to revise the SEZ Act 2012 in order to offer the SEZs concrete legal backing, along with better incentives and benefits. Sources added that progress was expected from three CPEC SEZs. These included Rashakai, Nowshera in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Dhabeji SEZ in Thatta, and Allama Iqbal Industrial City in Faisalabad. However, these SEZs have not been inaugurated yet, the sources said.
The federal government has selected nine locations as identified by the provincial governments for developing the SEZs.
The BOI officials informed the Senate Special Committee on CPEC that the government already coordinated with the Chinese before commencing industrial cooperation to determine the types of benefits and concessions they required.
The officials added that they had performed a comparative study with other countries in the region. We want the SEZs to have more incentives because the government is seeking long-term benefits, the BOI officials said.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan approved legislative changes related to concessions for Gwadar Port and Gwadar Free Zone. However, these tax concessions are limited to the Gwadar zone since the government has yet to finalise the tax incentive package for the prioritised SEZs under CPEC. It is notable that the prioritised SEZs are separate from those set up under the SEZ Act 2012.
