ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is reviewing entire Pakistan Customs Tariff (PCT) to withdraw concessionary rate of customs duties on items falling within the category of ‘others’ to bring them on par with the duty structure in higher slabs in budget (2014-15).
As per details, the FBR is expected to abolish ‘others’ category of the PCT in certain slabs to check misuse of the facility. In cases where the ‘others’ category be abolished, the FBR will bring the items in applicable tariff slab in budget (2014-15). In this regard, the FBR is examining the whole tariff slabs to identify ‘others’ category wherever necessary.
Moreover, the FBR intended to revise three major concessionary customs SROs including SRO 565.(I)/2006, SRO 567(I)/2006 and SRO 575(I)/2006 in the budget (2014-15) on the basis of laid down principles. It has been learnt that the FBR has been vetting amendments to the SROs in consultation with the Engineering Development Board (EDB) to be notified in the budget (2014-15). The SROs are being revised for shifting/deletion of necessary entries from SROs to Pakistan Customs Tariff (PCT) on the basis of the laid down principles.
The FBR is reviewing the said SROs with a view to analyse the impact of concessionary regime on industrial growth, export competitiveness, import substitution, further localisation of parts and more importantly passing on the benefit of concessions to the end consumers.
It is to be recalled that in last budget, the FBR amended the PCT for streamlining tariff structure to incentivise growth and investment. New codes were created in Tariff in Chapter 87 for newly indigenized vehicles to incentivise local auto industry. New codes were also created in tariff for classification of satellite phone (8517.1230) @ 25 percent and water dispenser (8418.6930) @ 30 percent to reduce classification disputes and improve import statistics. A new PCT code 8539.3920 was created in Tariff for energy saving tubes at 0 percent duty.
