MULTAN-The government is going to set up an export terminal in Sadiqabad and a model multi-transit hub at Muzaffargarh under CPEC to facilitate the exporters and importers.
This was disclosed by Muhammad Zahid Khokhar, member revenue, Federal Board of Revenue, while addressing the members of Multan Chamber of Commerce & Industry here on Saturday. He further revealed that the FBR has revised regulatory duty (RD) on the import of 700 items in new financial year. "Under the new Statutory Regulatory Order (SRO) 504(I)/2017, up to 60% ad valorem regulatory duty has been placed on the import of new and old cars, jeeps and sport utility vehicles (SUVs). Similarly, the government has imposed regulatory duty on imported tiles to protect local industry," he added. He said that up-country dryports are losing attraction with every passing day and mostly importers and exporters prefer using Karachi port. He said that Multan dry port looks deserted as traders of south Punjab are clearing their consignments from Karachi. He said that 2,500 to 3,000 GD files are being processed daily in Karachi while only 0.7 % work is done in Multan.
Referring to Pakistan Customs, he said that the department protected Pakistani borders against smuggling and facilitated the legal trade. He added that the Pakistan Customs also assisted FBR in revenue collection in terms of duty recovery on goods traded across the borders. "It has also been helping domestic industry to flourish by discouraging illegal import of goods. He hoped that exports and imports would be increased with the up-gradation of Multan international airport.
He admitted that businessmen are in trouble due to double taxation and the FBR has decided to take up the issue in the meeting of Council of Common Interest (CCI). He disclosed that the warehouse surcharges are reduced to 0.25 percent from one percent to facilitate the businesses. He said that Sialkot dryport has changed the fate of the city and MCC Sialkot is responsible for all the Customs related activities within Gujranwala, Sialkot, Hafizabad, Gujrat, Mandi Bahauddin and Narowal districts. Member customs said that examination and clearance of import and export consignments at the Sialkot Dry Port Trust (SDPT) has been carried out using advanced technology. "We are trying to improve the capacity of customs and SDPT officials for better use of technology and using intelligence tricks during examination" he added.
President of Multan Chamber of Commerce & Industry Khawaja Jalaluddin Roomi said in his address that the up-country dry ports contributed a lot towards national exchequer and played pivotal role in development of exports but there is lethargy in resolution of their problems by departments concerned. He said that besides clear instructions of President of Pakistan to form a joint committee of all stakeholders to address the problems of dry ports, the joint committee has not yet been formed. He added that exporters were not using up-country dry ports due to considerable delay in refund of rebate claims as compared to duration of refund of rebate claims at Karachi Collectorates and double & ruthless checking of export consignments by Anti Narcotic Force.
The meeting was also attended by Chief Collector (Central) Lahore Zeba Hye Azhar, Collector Customs Multan Saud Imran, Additional collector Talib Hussain, Deputy Collector Saad Ata Rabbani, Assistant Collector Zohaib Sandeela, SVP-MCCI Bakhtawar Tanvir Sheikh, Former Presidents of MCCI, Khawaja Muhammad Yousaf, Mian Iqbal Hassan, Khawaja Muhammad Usman, Khawaja Muhammad Fazil Chairman Multan dryport, and Khawaja Farooq. FBR's member Customs Muhammad Zahid Khokhar inaugurated the conference room in Model Customs collectorate Multan. He also visited Pak-Arab Refinery Company (PARCO) Gujrat (Muzaffargarh).Collector customs Multan Saud Imran presented the shield to the guest. Member customs Zahid Khokhar appreciated the performance of Multan collectorate.