President of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry Malik Tahir Javaid has once again called for total withdrawal of regulatory duty regime. According to the LCCI spokesman, while talking to the parliamentarians in a meeting at the National Assembly, the LCCI president said the regulatory duty is nothing else but death knell for all sectors of economy. The parliamentarians including Chairman NA Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue & Economic Affairs Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh, Saeed Ahmed Khan Manais, Dr Shezra Mansab Ali Khan, Sheikh Fayyaz ud Din, Syed Naveed Qamar, Dr Nafisa Shah, Syed Mustafa Mehmud and Asad Umer were present in the meeting.
Malik Tahir Javaid was of the view that the regulatory duty regime would not only destroy the exporting sector but will also hit the manufacturing sector hard as a number of raw materials have been subjected to new regulatory duty. The duty regime would be hardly doing any service to the economy. Federal Board of Revenue should totally withdraw the recently imposed regulatory duty otherwise its destruction would be beyond the imaginations.
He said since various imported raw materials are being used in the local industries for manufacturing and exporting of goods therefore regulatory duty on these important inputs would add to the miseries of export-oriented industries. Resultantly, he said, exports would be continuing to sink.
"Business community should be treated as partner and all departments including FBR should be directed by the government to take LCCI and other trade bodies on board while formulating trade, industry, imports and exports related policies" The LCCI President said the business community is already suffering because of undue delay in payment of refunds and high cost of doing business and cannot afford to bear heavy burden of regulatory duty that is imposed without keeping in view the ground realities. He said principally THE regulatory duty is imposed on such products where local industry needs protection.
The LCCI understands that protection of local industry is important for any state as it provides employment opportunities and contributes sizeable amount of revenue to national exchequer. But business community fails to understand that why regulatory duty is imposed on import of raw materials and other goods which are either not locally manufactured or produced in very small quantity as compared to their imports, he added.
He said if the regulatory duty is not totally withdrawn it would also adversely affect the industrial sector. On the other hand, it would open flood gate of smuggling and under invoicing that are already causing huge financial loss to the national kitty, he added.
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