KARACHI: Stakeholders, including manufacturers, importers and representatives of trade bodies, attended a meeting at the conference room of the Directorate General of Customs Valuation at Customs House.
The primary demand of the local manufacturers is that the import of toilet soap should not be subjected to a higher rate of duty because the high duty and taxes on the import of raw material used in the manufacture of the item, including perfume, packaging materials, are pushing their production costs to a point where they could not compete with their counterparts.
Talking to Customs Today, former Pakistan Soap Manufacturers Association vice chairman A Abdullah Zaki said that the annual demand of toilet soap in the country was around 200,000 tonnes. He said that nearly 60 percent or about 125,000 tonnes of the demand was met by the local toilet soap manufacturers while around 7-8 percent of it was met by imports.
In addition to it, another 10-11 percent of the demand is met by the smuggling of the product under the Afghan Transit Trade, he added.
Local production, legal imports and the smuggling fail to meet the toilet soap demand in Pakistan, he added.
According to sources, another round of stakeholders meeting would be held to discuss the determination of customs values on toilet soap imports end this month.
