LAHORE:Pakistan Carpet Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PCMEA) on Sunday called upon the authorities concerned to take effective and appropriate measures to remove hurdles in way of trade and economy.
Chairing a meeting in the Association’s office here, the PCMEA Vice Chairman Usman Ashraf said that they met with top officials of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and informed them about the different taxes imposed on partially finished raw materials imported through Afghanistan and other issues.
He said the problems related to the State Bank were also the same, so the government should resolve these problems that these problems without delay for much-needed increase in exports for the country.
Usman Ashraf told the participants that a three-member delegation comprising senior members Abdul Latif Malik and Riaz Ahmed under his leadership called on three-member officials including Member Customer Policy and Chief Sales Tax Policy of FBR and informed them of their demands. “In this regard, we have also sent our reports in writing to the Chairman FBR,” he added
He said that they told the FBR that hand-loom carpet industry was a cottage industry spread over different places and partially finished raw materials for this industry were procured from Afghanistan through Torkham border and after final preparation in Pakistan, it was 100 percent exported.
In the previous federal budget, he mentioned, the registered exporters were exempted from customs duties. “We request that commercial importers like registered exporters be included in tax and customs duty exemption relief in the upcoming budget and collection of sales tax will not be affected by this relief to commercial importers,” he added.
He said that this initiative would not only strengthen the hand-woven carpets industry but also increase the volume of valuable foreign exchange which the country is in dire need of at this time.
He urged the government to play its role in resolving the complaints related to the State Bank, which would inevitably have a positive impact on the exports. “External payments are delayed due to various reasons including delay in correspondence between banks but it is being deducted by State Bank in the form of penalty due to which the exporters are facing serious problem. The government is requested to intervene in this matter and return the circular of deduction due to delay,” he concluded.
Senior Central Leader Abdul Latif Malik, Chairman of Carpet Training Institute Ijazur Rehman, Senior Member Riyaz Ahmed, Pervaiz Hanif, Saeed Khan, Major (Rtd) Akhtar Nazir, Shahid Hasan, Kamran Razi, Umeer Usman and others were also present.