ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue once again directed FBR that the recommendations of the committee regarding regulatory duty on import of tyres should be reviewed and regulatory duty on import should be abolished.
The meeting of the Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs of the National Assembly was held in Committee Room of Federal Board of Revenue, FBR House, Islamabad, under the chairmanship of Faiz Ullah, MNA. The Committee approved the minutes of previous meetings of the Committee held on 24th April, 2019.
The Committee members have expressed its displeasure about the replies received from Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on the recommendations of the Committee, made in its meetings held on 15th & 16th April, 2019. The Members were of the view that FBR’s version was not in accordance with the recommendations while considering the reply pertaining to Regulatory Duty on the import of tyres.
A member of the Committee invited the attention of the Committee towards the presentation delivered by the Pakistan Tyres Association, wherein, they have clearly highlighted the increase of revenue, after reducing the regulatory duty on import of tyres. The Committee unanimously recommended to FBR for preparing comprehensive and maintainable suggestions in response to the recommendations of the committee.
It was also decided that another meeting in this regard will be held in the second week of May, 2019. The Committee was briefed by the Member (Customs-Policy), FBR on Customs Tariff Reforms (CTR). He said that customs has achieved its revenue targets, and a collection by customs sector was 47 percent of total FBR’s collection during July-March, 2018-19. He added that in recent years, import export gap has tremendously increased, however, as a result of recent customs tariff measures, import has shrunk and exports have marginally increased. He also apprised the Committee about year-wise CTR and reducing of slabs, and average effective regional Customs Duty rates. He further informed the issues and challenges faced by the FBR in this regard.
Director General, National Tariff Commission briefed the Committee about the salient features of National Tariff Policy. She said, it was proposed that the tariff slabs should be simplified based on principle of cascading. She added that the tariff on raw material, intermediate goods and machinery will be reduced and the difference in the rates of tariff for the commercial importers and the industrial users of raw materials, intermediate and capital goods will be eliminated to reduce misuse of such differentials and to provide access to such essential materials for SMEs.
The meeting was attended by MNAs Jamil Ahmed Khan, Faheem Khan, Aftab Hussain Siddique, Dr. Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, Mr. Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh, Ali Pervaiz, Dr. Aisha Ghaus Pasha, Nafisa Shah and Abdul Wasay besides the senior officers of Ministry of Finance, Revenue & Economic Affairs, Ministry of Commerce, FBR and National Tariff Commission.
