Small traders call for ending reliance on imported goods

All Pakistan Cottage Industries and Small Traders Association (APCISTA) has urged the government to impose ban for a limited period of five-year on the import of those products, which are abundantly available in Pakistan. Chairman All Pakistan Cottage Industries and Small Traders Association, Ghulam Sarwar Malik, told Business Recorder here on Saturday that the proposal, if implemented, would stabilise the local industry. At present there are a lot of imported products that are cheaper than local products, which is causing harm to the cottage industry, he said.
Therefore, he said that import of such products required to be banned for a specific period so as to protect the cottage industry.
He also demanded of the government to declare those industries having workforce up to 25 workers as cottage industry. This limit was 10 workers in the past, which had now been reduced to five workers.
The association also demanded that electricity, gas, petrol, diesel etc should be provided to cottage industry at cheaper rates. It also demanded that penalty on utility bills be removed, at least for the cottage industry.
Talking about used auto parts, Sarwar said that import of those parts, which were not produced locally, must be allowed. Once this step was taken, the smuggling of parts would be discouraged to the large extent and the government would also receive revenue of million of rupees, he opined.
He further said that manufacturers, traders and wholesalers whose sales were in between Rs 5-10 million should be charged only one tax ie income tax and the rate of tax should be one percent only. While exemption of tax, which was at present up to Rs 100,000 should be enhanced to Rs 150,000 keeping in view inflation and rising prices.
He further said that the association in its budget proposals for the year 2005-06 has also proposed the government that the cottage industry should be exempted from professional tax, garbage tax and undue taxes. The association has also proposed setting up a cottage city on the pattern of industrial estates where land should be provided on 15-year easy instalments, tax holiday for five-year, besides one-window operation to have access to all utilities.
Once all the cottage industry would be at one place, the government would be able to generate more revenue, as more people would come in the tax net, he concluded.