Fire protection companies ask govt to declare their services tax-free

LAHORE: The fire protection industry in Pakistan has demanded that its services should be declared tax-free to promote the culture of fire safety to save precious human lives and property.

The demand to this effect was made as the fire protection industry in Pakistan constituted its representative association for the first time to promote the cause of fire safety and security across the country.

The ceremony to formally launch the Fire Protection Industry of Pakistan (FPIP) was held here at Pakistan Institute Management (PIM). The secretariat of FPIP is being established at the institute.

“Earlier, the entities in the arena of fire protection didn’t have any separate a traders and a service providers’ body to formally represent their industry in the country to deal with various stakeholders, including the state and government institutions,” said FPIP’s Founding President Muhammad Imran Taj.

He said the FPIP was going to represent every section of the fire protection industry in Pakistan, including manufacturers, suppliers, installers of equipment, related service providers, trainers and consultants.

He said the FPIP would provide a common platform to the experts and companies related to the fire protection industry to exchange of ideas and information about latest technologies and equipment used for fire safety the world over.

He said the FPIP being the representative trade body of the fire protection association would hold dialogue with the government about demands of the industry, including exemption and reduction in taxes and duties on its equipment.

He said the government should declare the services rendered by fire protection companies tax-free in view of their mandatory nature to save precious human lives, properties and infrastructure.

Taj said the FPIP was going to demand of the government to establish an industrial zone, preferably near Gadani in Balochistan, to invite international manufacturers from outside Pakistan to indigenously produce fire protection equipment of world class standard.

He said that Gadani would be the most suitable location to establish such a purpose-built industrial zone due to easy availability of manpower for the proposed manufacturing industry.He said the FPIP would strive for establishing a fire protection training academy in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

He said the FPIP would also strive for the formation of a technical committee comprising relevant experts for due implementation of the Fire Safety Provisions of the Building Code of Pakistan adopted by the Pakistan Engineering Council.

He said the proposed technical committee would alter the fire safety provisions in accordance with ground realities in the country as the document in question in its present form is merely an adoption of the same provision of the National Fire Protection Association of the USA.

Nadeem Ashraf, media and publications secretary of the FPIP, said that as far as the arena of fire protection was concerned, Pakistan should follow the model of the United Arab Emirates as the UAE within a short span of time had established its indigenous industry that had been supplying fire protection equipment of world class standard to many countries.