Sameer Nazir
KARACHI: The Chief Minister Sindh Syed Qaim Ali Shah has invited public and private sector of Australia to avail investment opportunities and lucrative incentives of tax holiday and other facilities here in Sindh in the interest of both sides. This he offered while talking to the High Commissioner of Australia Mr. Peter Heyward who called on him at CM House today.
Talking on the occasion, the Chief Minister Sindh said that there are lot of opportunities of investment here in Sindh which includes investment in coal and wind based power generation, investment in education sector specially at education city in Karachi, agriculture development and export of agro products such as mangoes, sapota (cheeko) and other verities of fruits, food grain.
He said that Sindh is blessed with huge qualitative coal reserves at Tharparkar and Agriculture sector having good potential of investment.
He said that at present so many other countries have expressed their interest of investment and we have signed MoU with many of them. He said that some countries have also started their working in power generation projects. He said that Sindh Government will welcome the any investment from public or private sectors of Australia and even we are ready to provide you the platform of public-private partnership PPP mode of investment just to build the confidence of the companies intend to invest.
While talking about the security problem the Chief Minister Sindh said that after launching targeted operation against the terrorists, kidnappers, target killers and extortionist, the overall law & order situation has been much improved.
He said that the problem of law & order in some parts of Karachi had been created because of arrival of influx here in Karachi after Sawat operation in 2009 and added that many of them did not went back but stayed at Karachi and created problem.
He said that now the situation has been controlled and we are after the terrorists, criminals who are on run. He said that in addition to Karachi, there is conducive atmosphere for investment, trade and commerce activities in rest of Sindh.
The High Commissioner Australia Mr. Peter Heyward while talking in the meeting expressed his interest specially investment in coal based energy power projects, agriculture development and import/export of agro products/ fruits like mango to his country.
He also expressed his satisfaction over the steps taken by the Government for maintain law & order.
Sameer Nazir
KARACHI: The Sindh Government has expressed its reservation over the Gas Infrastructure Development Cess and decided to approach Federal Government to distribute the collected money among the provinces under the Article 161 of the constitution. This was decided in the meeting presided by Chief Minister Sindh Syed Qaim Ali Shah held at CM House Karachi today.
The Advisor to CM for Finance Syed Murad Ali Shah, Secretary Finance Sohail Rajput, Secretary Energy Agha Wasif, Secretary Law Mir Muhammad Shaikh, Assistant Advocate General Sindh and other officers attended the meeting.
The Advisor to CM for Finance Syed Murad Ali Shah while briefing the meeting said that Gas Infrastructure Development Cess was imposed by Federal Government through legislation in the National Assembly in 2011 and it was supposed to be utilized for Turkmenistan-Afghanistan- Pakistan- India (TAPI) gas pipe line and Pak-Iran gas pipeline.
He said that since 2011 to outgoing financial year collected amount of Rs. 131 billion have not been utilized because of the fate of projected gas lines as such this amount was lying with Federal Government, which must be distributed among the provinces under the Article 161 of constitution.
The Chief Minister Sindh addressing the meeting asked the officers concerned to approach the Federal Government for getting provincial share from this cess with proper justification. He said that Sindh Government also to use other forums and options to get its legitimate share from this levy of Gas Infrastructure Development Cess if it not responded by Federal Government positively.