KARACHI: The manufacturers of ceramic have requested the Director General, Customs Valuation to suspend the Valuation Ruling No 758/2015 dated September 8, 2015 for importing tiles from China and Iran.
In this regard, the Pakistan Ceramics Manufacturers Association forwarded a letter to the DG Customs Valuation with a request to suspend the Valuation Ruling No 758/2015.
According to letter, over the last five years, the valuation of tiles from China has been reduced by more than 25 percent whereas all the input costs in China regarding labor costs, energy cost and the currency valuation against the US dollar increased by more than 35 percent.
Moreover, the inflation in China over the last 10 years has cumulatively gone up by 26 percent whereas in the same period the valuation of tiles has been reduced
The import data reveals that a large number of consignments of Iranian origin tiles were released in the price ranging from $ 0.60 to $ 0.16 per square meter as against $ 2.17 and above per square meter from China vide Valuation Ruling No 518/2013. However, there is no current Valuation Ruling for Iranian tiles.
These tiles have been imported under alleged wrong PCT heading 2713.200 attracting 10 percent duty, causing loss of billions of rupees to the national exchequer, the letter adds.
The letter stated that average raw material cost including glaze cost, clay costs and other pigments and color cost on a conservative basis, will be over $ 1.3 per meter. The average gas consumption to produce one meter of tile is 3.9 MMBTU, the cost of gas in China is $4.9 which translates to about $ 0.7 per meter. These two inputs together without labor and other factory overheads is more than $ 2 hence, it is not possible to produce and sell a tile at the lower value.
