Says it to open flood gate of smuggling & under invoicing
LAHORE: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) should totally withdraw the recently imposed regulatory duty on thousands of imported goods to save the national economy.
As a result of business community’s efforts, it was hoped the government would rationalise the regulatory duty. However, after the FBR sent new proposals to the Economic Coordination Committee, it appears the government was not in a mood to resolve this issue.
These views were expressed by Khawaja Khawar Rasheed, Senior Vice President of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry, while talking to Customs Today the other day.
Rasheed said that he still hoped the issue of regulatory duty would be resolved as senior government functionaries had given him assurances in this regard.
He said that the business leaders held meetings with Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, PM Assistant on Revenue Haroon Akhter, Federal Minister for Industries and Production Ghulam Murtaza Khan Jatoi, Chairman NA Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue & Economic Affairs Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh, Chairman FBR and Member Customs FBR Zahid Khokhar and demanded total withdrawal of regulatory duty on imports.
He said that the authorities were principally agreed to move in favour of the business community but they worked other way around by just playing gimmicks. He added the authorities provided relief to the sectors of their choices at the cost of others cost.
He said that the LCCI had informed the authorities concerned that regulatory duty on essential items, including raw materials, would harm the economy which is already under pressure due to devaluation of rupee, heavy borrowings, high trade deficit and poor ranking in ease of doing business.
The LCCI SVP said that the Regulatory Duty regime will not only destroy the exporting sector but will also hit the manufacturing sector hard as a number of raw materials have been subjected to new Regulatory Duty.
“New Regulatory Duty regime would be hardly doing any service to the economy. Federal Board of Revenue should totally withdraw the recently imposed Regulatory Duty otherwise its destruction would be beyond the imaginations. He said that since various imported raw materials are being used in the local industries for manufacturing and exporting of goods therefore Regulatory Duty on these important inputs would add to the miseries of export-oriented industries. Resultantly, he said, exports would be continued to sink.
The LCCI SVP president said that business community is already suffering because of undue delay in payment of refunds and high cost of doing business and cannot afford to bear heavy burden of Regulatory Duty that is imposed without keeping in view the ground realities.
“Principally Regulatory Duty is imposed on such products where local industry needs protection. The LCCI understands that protection of local industry is important for any state as it provides employment opportunities and contribute sizeable amount of revenue to national exchequer,” he said adding that business community fails to understand as to why Regulatory Duty is imposed on import of raw materials and other goods which are either not locally manufactured or produced in very small quantity as compared to their imports.
If Regulatory Duty is not withdrawn totally it would also adversely affect the industrial sector. On the other hand it would open flood gate of smuggling and under invoicing that are already causing huge financial loss to the national kitty, he concluded.
