Pakistan FMCG Importers Association has urged the federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to bring down the Customs duties on different consumers goods as higher rates are contributing to an increased influx of smuggled items.
Patron-in-Chief of the Association Naseem Chawla and President Anjum Nisar in a joint statement issued here on Thursday urged the government to curb the menace of smuggling by lowering duty tariff on items which are heavily smuggled. They claimed that smuggled goods through the borders of Afghanistan, Iran China, India and the Afghan Transit Trade form a big chunk of the informal economy, volume of which ranges between 50 to 60 percent of the formal economy. The markets across the country are overrun with smuggled goods and local industries and importers were struggling for survival, said the Association's leadership.
They said that smuggling was being done in a number of shapes like under invoicing, undervaluation of goods, misclassifications, falsification of documents, mis-declaration of country and short landing transit or re-export of goods. They said that smuggling was encouraged by the large difference in tax rates between neighbouring countries. This means that goods are cheaper in one country than another, resulting in enactment of import duties to protect the local industries; this scenario encourages smuggling. The government and the FBR should address matters on an urgent basis.