ISLAMABAD: Due to new amendments in the budget 2017-18, the Air Freight Unit (AFU) Islamabad will get more revenue because of imposition of Regulatory Duty (RD) in telecom equipment, Customs Duty (CD) comes on zero or 5% with Free Trade Agreement (FTA)and classifications disputes. Now the said CD of zero or 5% will be same for Azad Jamu Kashmir (AJK).
This was said by Khawaja Khuram Naeem while talking to Customs Today.
He said that for further incentivization of the telecommunication sector, the government had withdrawn currently leviable customs duties at the rates of zero and 5%. Similarly it supposed that mobile phone seller companies will also be getting attrition due to new amendments in Customs Duties and Regulatory Duties.
He said the telecommunication sector is one of the important pillars of the economic development in the country, however the present government has proposed to withdraw custom duty and replace it with regulatory duty at a slightly lesser rate.
He said the same government had doubled the custom duty on telecom equipment back in 2014 from 5 percent to 10 percent, which was gradually increased in later years. He added that now the government is taking credit for giving relief to telecom sector by removing one duty and imposing another one.
The removal of Custom Duty and its replacement with Regulatory Duty will be a relief for telecom operators to some extent, particularly those operators who are working on their expansion plans for the deployment of 3G and 4G services.
Expansion of advanced network will translate into penetration of internet broadband services to maximum areas which is tantamount to adoption of service by customers and their contribution for economic activity.
