Minutes of 13TH Meeting of of s held at 1030 hours on 11 TH January, 2017 at TDAP Conference Room, Karachi The of s meeting was held on 11 th January 2017 at 1030 hours in the Conference Room of TDAP, 3 rd Floor, Finance & Trade Centre, Karachi. Mian Asad Hayaud Din, Additional Secretary-I, Ministry of Commerce could not attend the meeting due to some urgent official engagement at Islamabad, Mr. Islam Salim, NTTFC was requested by the members of the Board to chair the meeting which was graciously accepted by him. 2. After recitation from the Holy Quran the NTTFC private sector s were very upset due to frequent postponement of the BOD meetings as they were unaware of the development of various activities being carried out by the NTTFC and asked for updates on the working of NTTFC. They asked Executive Secretary to inform the Board about all the meetings attended by him in Islamabad and Overseas through an Executive Summary on each meeting. The Executive Secretary NTTFC was asked to inform why the s were not invited in the different meetings in Islamabad and overseas. The Executive Secretary confirmed to provide all the information required by the s on his return to Islamabad. 3. The Board also specifically asked why s were not informed and invited to attend the following at Islamabad:- a. The 4 th Meeting of the High Level Working Group on Islamabad- Tehran- Istanbul (ITI) Road Transport Corridor held on 17-18 August 2016 at Islamabad. b. 2 nd meeting of the Pakistan-turkey Joint Transport Commission on Road Transport held on 26-27 July 2016 at Islamabad on 19-20 July 2016. 4. The Executive Secretary then made a presentation before the BOD on the working of NTTFC and also highlighting major achievements of the NTTFC during the year 2016. The Executive Secretary NTTFC informed the s that both the meetings as pointed out were arranged by the Ministry of Communication and not by the Ministry of Commerce or NTTFC. Ministry of Communication deals with all the road transport agreements and invite all the relevant government ministries to attend the meetings which they arrange. Executive Secretary NTTFC was nominated by the Ministry of Commerce to attend these meetings on behalf of the Ministry. He further stated that s have always been invited in every events organized by the NTTFC. At this Mr. Islam Salim asked the Executive Secretary to share progress with the BOD on regular basis. Proceeding of the meeting is reported as under: Item 1. Approval of Minutes of the Twelfth Meeting of the Board of s of NTTFC 5. The Secretary to informed that the minutes of the twelfth meeting of the Board of s of NTTFC were approved by the Chair and circulated to all the s of the Board on 3 rd February 2016. The minutes of twelfth meeting of the Board of s were approved.
Item 2. Role of NTTFC in recently concluded Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) by Government of Pakistan 6. The Executive Secretary NTTFC informed the Board that Pakistan has signed TFA in 2015. There is in-built provision in the agreement that each member shall establish and/or maintain a national committee on trade facilitation or designate an existing mechanism to facilitate both domestic coordination and implementation of provisions of this Agreement. In Pakistan, NTTFC is already carrying out this function of a coordination body of public and private sectors partnership. The Executive Secretary further explained that following two options are being considered in the ministry of Commerce to revamp the NTTFC: 1. The NTTFC may be renamed as National Trade Facilitation Committee ( NTFC) to deal with the affaires of the TFA only, rest of the work related to transport facilitations, international conventions, bills, Agreements and legislations etc may be transferred to the respective Ministries/Divisions. 2. The Current status of NTTFC may remain the same as the NTTFC TORs already contains TFA related activities to be carried out by the NTTFC. However, a Capital Based Working Group ( CBWG) under the chair of Additional Secretary-1 ministry of Commerce may be constituted consists of 20-15 members both from public and private sectors to exclusively look after the TFA related activities in the quarterly meetings 7. Mr Baber Badat NTTFC said that transport, modern legislations and ratification of international conventions are the integral part of trade facilitation, and coordinated efforts need to be further strengthened rather curtailing the activities, therefore, current working of NTTFC may not be disturbed. Mr Rasheed Jan Mohammad NTTFC argued that NTTFC was created with a great of difficulties and private sector played a crucial role in its establishment. NTTFC was partially funded by the Shipper Council till 2005. NTTFC provide platform of interaction between government functionaries and the private sector. Other s agreed with Mr Baber Badat and Rasheed JanMohammad. Decision The BOD recommended adoption proposal # 2 above and also insisted that Board of s of NTTFC may be involved in every decision making by the Ministry of Commerce regarding NTTFC affairs. Item 3. Approval of Appointment of M/S Jalis Ahmad & Co. Chartered Accountants as auditors for the financial year 2015-16.
8. The Executive Secretary informed the Board that M/S Jalis Ahmad & Co., Chartered Accountants have been carrying out the function of auditors of NTTFC accounts. Last audit was conducted for the year2014-15 at the fee of Rs 17,000/- plus out of pocket expenses. They have agreed to carry out the audit for financial year 2015-16 at the fee of Rs 20,000/- plus out of pocket expenses. Approval of the Board was requested for appointment of M/S Jalis Ahmad & Co, as auditors for NTTFC accounts for the year ending June 30, 2016 against the fee asked by them. M.A. Jabbar, NTTFC pointed out that there is a rule by virtue of which companies must change their external auditors after a period of 5 years. The Chair said that if the rule permits then the auditors M/S Jalis Ahmad & Co. Chartered Accountants may be retained. On checking, it was found that the rule of changing the external auditors applies only to listed companies at the stock exchange only. NTTFC is not a listed company hence the auditors M/S Jalis Ahmad & Co. Chartered Accountants can be retained. M/S Jalis Ahmad & Co. Chartered Accountants may be retained as the auditors of the NTTFC for the year ended 2015-16. The audit report to be signed by the Executive Secretary NTTFC and Rasheed JanMohammad NTTFC BOD Item 4. Approval of budget for 2016-17 9. For the information of the Board, the Executive Secretary shared that the 6 th Finance Committee and 71 st EDF Board of Administrators meetings held on 24 & 26 May 2016 respectively have approved lump sum Rs.10.4 Million for operating expenses of NTTFC for the year 2016-17. However, the EDF Board also directed NTTFC to seek regular budget for its O&M expenditure. A case for regular budget of NTTFC had already been submitted to the Ministry of Commerce which is under consideration. On this the BOD asked for details of budget allocation. It was decided that Executive Secretary will provide NTTFC budget for FY: 2016-17 and get approval from the BOD by circulation. Item 5. Ad-hoc relief to the employees of NTTFC. 10. Present salary structure of NTTFC staff was approved by the Board of s in its meeting held on 12 th June 2014. Since then the NTTFC staff has received no relief on account of increase in the cost of living. While during this period the Government has granted 7.5% ad-hoc relief allowance to all the employees w.e.f1st July 2015 and recently 10% ad-hoc relief allowance effective 1st July 2016. 11. The Executive Secretary requested that Board of s may kindly allow 10% ad-hoc relief allowance recently announced by the government to the employees
of the NTTFC effective July 2016. Total impact would be Rs.53,200 per month. The increased amount will be met from the existing budget provision of NTTFC and no additional fund is demanded from the Government. 12. Mr. A Rasheed JanMohammad, NTTFC asked about the budgetary allocations by NTTFC which was not shared with the Board. Mr. M.A. Jabbar, NTTFC said that the NTTFC budget must be approved by the Board before granting any relief allowance to the NTTFC staff. He said that the budget may be approved by circulation to the s after which they will look into the request for approval of any relief allowance to the NTTFC staff. The s while commenting on this issue said that principally we are agreed with the proposal of adhoc relief with the condition that details budget allocation for 2016-17 is provided beside progress report of NTTFC is shared with us Executive Secretary NTTFC to provide Budget statement of 2016-17 and detailed progress report of the NTTFC to all the s of NTTFC. Item 6. Any Other Business 13. There being no other business, the meeting concluded with a vote of thanks to the chair.
Sr. No. 13 th Meeting of Board of s of National Trade & Transport Facilitation Committee Held at 1030 Hours on Wednesday, 11 th January 2017 at Conference Room, TDAP, Karachi 1 Mr. Asad hayaud Din Name Designation Organization Chairperson Additional Secretary I Ministry of Commerce 2 Mr. Nasir Masroor Ahmad 3 Mr. Altaf Asghar Member Customs Joint Secretary FBR Ministry of Communication 4 Mr. Asad Rafi Chandna represented by Mr. Asif Haroon, P&S General Ports & Shipping 5 Mr. A. Rasheed JanMohammad Chairman Westbury Group of Companies 6 Mr. Babar Badat 7 Engr. M.A. Jabbar 8 Mr. Islam Salim 9 Mr. Umar Wahid Managing Managing Chairman Secretary / Executive Secretary Transfreight Corporation Qasim Automotive Manufacturing (Pvt) Ltd Al-Hamd Container Terminal (Pvt) Ltd. NTTFC