ISLAMABAD: Members of National Assembly’s Standing on Finance Monday expressed their displeasure over the replies received from Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on the recommendations of the committee, made in its meetings held on April 15 and 16, saying that FBR’s version was not in accordance with the recommendations.
The displeasure was shown at the 12th meeting of the Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs of the National Assembly held here at the Committee Room of FBR House under the chairmanship of MNA Faizullah.
The meeting was informed that the tariff on raw material, intermediate goods and machinery will be reduced and the difference in the rates of tariff for the commercial importers and the industrial users of raw materials, intermediate and capital goods will be eliminated to reduce misuse of such differentials and to provide access to such essential materials for SMEs.
National Tariff Commission director general briefed the committee about the salient features of National Tariff Policy. She said it was proposed that the tariffs’ slabs should be simplified, according to the principle of cascading.
While considering the reply pertaining to regulatory duty on the import of tyres, a member of the committee invited the attention of the committee towards the presentation delivered by the Pakistan Tyres Association, wherein, they have clearly highlighted the increase of revenue, after reducing the regulatory duty on import of tyres.
The committee once again directed to FBR that the recommendations of the committee regarding regulatory duty on import of tyres may be reviewed and regulatory duty on import should be abolished.
The committee also unanimously recommended to FBR for preparing comprehensive and maintainable suggestions in response to the recommendations of the committee. It was also decided that another meeting in this regard will be held in the second week of May 2019.
The committee was briefed by FBR member (custom policy) on custom tariff reforms (CTR). He said that customs has achieved its revenue targets, and collection by custom sector was 47 per cent of FBR’s total collection during July-March 2018-19. He added that in recent years, trade gap has tremendously increased, however, as a result of recent custom tariff measures, imports have shrunk and exports have increased marginally.
He also apprised the committee about year-wise CTR and reducing of slabs, and average effective regional custom duty rates. He further informed the issues and challenges faced by the FBR in this regard.
The meeting was attended by MNAs Jamil Ahmed Khan, Faheem Khan, Aftab Hussain Siddique, Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh, Ali Pervaiz, Aisha Ghaus Pasha, Nafisa Shah and Abdul Wasay besides the senior officers of Ministry of Finance, Revenue & Economic Affairs, Ministry of Commerce, FBR and National Tariff Commission.
