Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) President Mian Shafqat Ali, Senior Vice President Abdul Basit and Vice President Aftab Ahmad Vohra have demanded of the government to retain 25 percent duty structure on pre-fabricated steel buildings (HS Code 9406.0000) that was curtailed to five percent in the recent budget.
The demand was raised by LCCI office-bearers during a meeting with the representatives of pre-fabricated steel structure sector here at Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The LCCI office-bearers were of the view that reduction in custom duty on finished goods would not only discourage the capacity expansion by the local industry but would also push it to the wall. They said that this was saving a huge foreign exchange through local production and contributing towards economic growth where generally highly technical expertise is required.
Speaking on the occasion, the representatives of the pre-fabricated steel structure sector informed the LCCI office-bearers that the main objective of the budget was tariff rationalisation vis-à-vis cascading principle - lowest rate of primary raw materials and highest for finished goods.
They said that the current tariff regime is highly discriminatory in the absence of any such relief on raw materials for prefabricated buildings and a great disadvantage to the domestic manufacturers who are already competing against large multinational corporations operating in the duty-free environment in the Middle East.
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