The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry has demanded of the government to withdraw regulatory duty until and unless a consensus is developed among the stakeholders. LCCI President Malik Tahir Jawaid raised this demand in separate meetings with Federal Minister for Industries & Production Ghulam Murtaza Khan Jattoi, Prime Minister's Assistant on Revenue Haroon Akhter, and Member Customs FBR Zahid Khokhar and apprised them of the panic caused due to regulatory duty.
He was of the view that the regulatory duty regime would not only destroy the export sector but would also hit the manufacturing sector hard as a number of raw materials have been subjected to new regulatory duty. He asked the Federal Board of Revenue to withdraw the recently imposed duty otherwise its destruction would be beyond the imaginations.
He said the business community should be treated as partner and all departments including FBR should be directed by the government to take the Lahore Chamber and other trade bodies on board while formulating trade, industry, imports and exports related policies. While sharing his point of view with the parliamentarians, the LCCI President said 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.
The LCCI President said the 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. If the duty is not withdrawn it would open flood gate of smuggling and under invoicing, he maintained.
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