ISLAMABAD: General Tyre and Rubber Company of Pakistan (GTR) Chief Executive Officer Hussain Kuli Khan Wednesday said that as per the statistics of financial year 2017-18, the government incurred a loss of approximately Rs30 billion at current rate of duty because of tyre smuggling.
In a statement on Wednesday, he said that had the tyres been imported through proper channels, they would have added additional revenue to the government and would have increased employment by fulfilling the country’s demand through supporting local tyre industry. He added, “Tyres from China have zero per cent duty on them.”
“Thus, there should be no smuggling of tyres from China but that is not the case as majority of the smuggled truck bus radial tyres are from China,” said Hussain.
He went on to say that this was the reason many local industries today had either shut down or moved out, resulting in a loss of jobs and foreign exchange because of illicit trade. “Reduction or abolishing duties, is not the cure because this will, in turn, damage the ability of local industry to grow, develop and compete internationally,” he added.
Besides smuggling, GTR is also suffering from mis-declaration of sizes by other players to avoid duty/tax and heavily under invoiced tyres, said Hussain.
The CEO suggested FBR should ensure that no tyres without documents were sold in the market and asked the Bureau to raid the markets and seize the tyres that the dealers cannot show papers of.
“This should not be hard as the smugglers are selling these tyres openly in the commercial centers,” he said, adding that effective border controls are needed.
“Secondly, the government should ensure that smuggled tyres do not come in through the border check posts at Chamman, Taftan and LandiKotal,” he added.
He further emphasized that the government should re-evaluate the data of the items being imported via the Afghan Transit Trade (ATT) and see if the vehicle population in Afghanistan supports the numbers of tyres being imported. “Items under the guise of ATT are either unloaded in Karachi or come back from the Afghan border via smuggling,” Hussain claimed.
Moreover, he said that during the last four years, more than Rs2 billion had been invested in the company and it has enhanced its annual production capacity to meet the growing demand of different market segments of the country.
VERY BAD