Country's leadership is taking commendable steps to boost exports but Statutory Regulatory Orders (SROs) need to be simplified to facilitate exporters, especially in the surgical sector. Chairman Surgical Instrument Manufacturers Association of Pakistan (SIMAP), Aamir Riaz Bhinder stated this in a press statement.
Which he quoted examples of recently issued SROs-509 and 644. He said the government announced reduction of sales tax from 20 percent to 15 percent on surgical machinery and raw material in the Federal budget 2007-08.
However, he cited that in the recently issued SRO 644, this ratio was fixed at 17.5 percent instead of 15 percent. Aamir Bhinder further said that stainless steel, used in surgical goods manufacturing, has not been included in zero rated sales tax regime as per SRO 509.
He said the surgical industry had called a complete ban on exports of surgical forgings and semi-finished surgical instruments or a 100 percent duty on export of such items. He urged Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to adopt export-oriented policies to boost exports.