The Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI) has urged the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) not to impose regulatory duty on the import of raw materials and other essentials that are not being manufactured locally. The LCCI President Khawaja Khawar Rasheed, Senior Vice-President Khawaja Khawar Rasheed and Vice-President Zeshan Khalil said that existing mechanism of imposition of regulatory duty on imports is not only hitting the importers hard but is also depriving government of huge revenue.
The imposition of any tax or duty should be progressive, they said, adding: "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 contribute sizeable amount of revenue to national exchequer."
They said that business community fails to understand that why regulatory duty is being imposed on import of raw materials and other goods especially chemicals used in industry, which are either not locally manufactured or produced in very small quantity as compared to their imports.
The LCCI office-bearers said that government authorities must consider the fact that industry uses raw materials to produce goods. If regulatory duty will be imposed on raw material it would also adversely affect the industry. On the other hand it would open flood gate of smuggling and under invoicing causing huge financial loss to the national kitty, they said.
They said that the Lahore Chamber supports imposition of regulatory duty on luxury items so that their import may be curtailed to improve balance of trade / payment. But it is very unfortunate that stakeholders including chambers and associations are not taken board to select products in this respect, they said.
They said that before deciding the products for subject purpose production capacity of our local industry and their contribution in government revenue should be carefully compared with that of importers They urged the Chairman FBR to take all stakeholders on board before imposing regulatory duty.
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