LAHORE: The government should lay foundation of “Industrial Revolution” by abolishing customs/regulatory duty/additional duty on around 2800 tariff lines for raw materials.
This was spoken by LCCI President Almas Hyder while talking to media. Almas said that manufacturing sector is most important cause of economic growth and it should be energized through supportive measures.
“Manufacturing is the path to development, creates jobs and much-needed revenue/foreign exchange for the state”, the LCCI President added.
He said that high cost of doing business is the major reason of below the par growth of manufacturing sector and exports of the country. He said that finest quality of Pakistani goods impress the international buyers but Chinese, Indian, Bangladeshi and products of various other countries get the benefit of low input cost.
The LCCI president said that there are around 2800 tariff lines of raw materials. Although the Government has exempted custom duty (CD) on more than 1650 raw materials/industrial inputs in the Federal Budget 2019-20 on demand of the LCCI, there are some major raw material lines that are not included in this list. He said that another review is needed in this regard so that around 1200 more raw material lines can be included in the list for duty exemption. This would enhance the competitiveness of our local Industry and enable it to compete with smuggling, under invoicing and mitigate the effects of low tariff FTAs. Furthermore, it will help government eliminate many SROs and close many doors of corruption.
He said that businessmen want to contribute heavily in economic uplift of the country provided their genuine issues are resolved. He said that abolishment of Customs/Regulatory/Additional Regulatory duty would be a great favor, not only to the manufacturing sector but to the national economy.
The LCCI President said that that Regulatory Duty should not be withdrawn partially, it must be withdrawn on all tariff lines for raw materials. They said that since various imported raw materials are being used in the local industries for manufacturing and exporting of goods therefore customs/regulatory Duty on these important inputs is harming the of export-oriented industries.
The LCCI Senior Vice President Khawaja Shahzad Nasir and Vice President Faheem-ur-Rehman Saigal said that global trade is based on goods, not services while services sector is also dependent on manufactured goods. They said that government would witnessing speedy economic growth, employment opportunities on large scale, increase in foreign exchange reserves and boost in exports once customs duty/regulatory duty on 2800 tariff lines of raw materials is abolished.
