KARACHI: Collector Customs Appraisement West Dr Farid Iqbal Qureshi has forwarded the recommendations and suggestions of the importers belong to the paper industry to the director of the Directorate General of Customs Valuation Department, it is learnt here.
Sources informed Customs Today that a delegation of paper industry met with Dr Qureshi at his office and expressed their concerns over the rising custom duty (CD) on import of paper.
The sources said that the delegation was of the view that the customs duty on import of paper board and exercise note book should be reduced by 10 percent as Pakistan has the highest tax on paper.
The industry believed that this way local exercise note book industry will be able to compete with the imported paper.
The delegation further stated that in its tax proposals 2016 the duty on paper and paper board (raw material) should be same as on the finished printed material and in the meantime the uniform rate of customs duty at 10 percent should be levied on the following HS codes of paper and paper board including: 4802.5510.
The delegation further stated that there is two percent duty on basic raw materials i.e. Pulp (H.S code: 47) and no duty on finished goods (HS code: 49) i.e. printed materials (books, catalogues, packing materials, literary materials etc) whereas semi-finished goods (HS code: 48) i.e. paper and paper board are subjected to 53 per cent aggregate duty and taxes add-on.
The delegation emphasized that this anomaly has forced businesses to get their material printed, including text books, outside Pakistan such as in Singapore, Malaysia and China and imported duty free.
The Collector Customs Appraisement West assured the delegation that its reservations would be resolved in stipulated time.
