Karachi, December 21, 2024 – The Pakistan Chemicals & Dyes Merchants Association (PCDMA) has voiced grave concerns over the escalating backlog of consignments at the nation’s ports, citing insufficient administrative capacity under the recently implemented Faceless Customs Clearance Assessment system, part of the Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) Transformation Plan.
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Commercial importers demand abolishing CNIC condition, FTR restoration
KARACHI: Commercial importers have demanded the government of abolishing condition of Computerized National Identity Card (CNIC) and restoring Final Tax Regime (FTR) in order to save businesses from adverse impact of COVID-19.
Amin Yousuf Balgamwala, Chairman Pakistan Chemical Dyes and Merchants Association (PCDMA) and former Director of Karachi Stock Exchange has appealed to Prime Minister Imran Khan to restore FTR and SRO 1125 in the upcoming budget 2020/2021 in the best economic interest of the country so that trade and industry can be saved from complete destruction due to ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
In an appeal to Prime Minister, Balgamwala said that the business of commercial importers has been ruined as a result of corona lockdown and severe economic crisis.
For the prevention of this pandemic all over the world including Pakistan were announced a lockdown to save the lives of masses.
Due to closure of industries and markets, the capital of commercial importers was stuck and now the situation has reached such a stage that commercial importers do not even have the funds to revive the import of raw material.
“If import of raw material would be stopped then it will be very difficult to supply raw material to export-oriented industries accordingly their requirement especially textile sector, which is the backbone of Pakistan economy, as country economy is already suffering from serious crises so if there is a shortage of raw materials, the production activities of the export-oriented industries including textile sector will also be hampered which will have a very negative impact on the country’s exports,” he pointed out.
PCDMA chairman questioned pursuing a pick and choose strategy by the government and said that it is a matter of concern for the business community but the government should understand the delicacy of the current extraordinary situation and provide relief to all sectors of economy.
“Whether it is the export sector or the import sector, the government should provide relief across-the-board without any discrimination so that the businesses and industries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic can get stand up again on their feet,” he opined.
Amin Balgamwala demanded the Prime Minister to abolish the CNIC condition on sale of goods to unregistered persons and said that if immediate relief was not given to commercial importers, they would be forced to close their business. In addition to reinstating SRO 1125, chairman PCDMA also demanded to restore a fixed tax regime (FTR), which is the only way to save trade and industry from collapse.
He also requested to keep petrol pumps open 24 hours a day for uninterrupted supply of raw materials to the industries and appealed to the Prime Minister to allow business 6 days a week also so as to offset the losses caused by the corona lockdown.
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PCDMA urges FBR to withdraw notices amid coronavirus lockdown
KARACHI: Commercial importers have resented to the notices sent by Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) despite realizing severe economic crisis amid lockdown in the country to control spread of coronavirus.
Pakistan Chemicals & Dyes Merchants Association (PCDMA) chairman and former director Karachi Stock Exchange Amin Yousuf Balgamwala in a statement on Monday demanded to waive all notices including income tax, sales tax, WHT and all proceeding in this regard for two months due to the worst economic crisis, as due to coronavirus pandemic, all the business activities have stopped and commercial importers are already facing huge financial crises.
Balgamwala said we are surprised on receiving FBR notices, as whole country is lockdown for prevention of coronavirus pandemic, so chairman FBR to issue directives to chief commissioner and all RTOs to stop harassment to commercial importers, so that import activities could be restored after the lockdown period.
“If wheel of trade and industry will continue to rotate, will create more opportunities for employment as the country develops,” he said
PCDMA chairman further said that if all notices including income tax, sales tax, WHT and other proceeding not stopped for at least 2 months then the textile industry will be badly affected which is the backbone of the domestic economy as commercial importers are the largest means of providing raw materials to the textile industry to continue production activities.
Amin Yusuf Balgamwala also demanded to defer the condition of the CNIC on the sale of goods to unregistered persons for six months so that the business community, especially small traders should be protected from destruction.
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Pakistan Customs assures eliminating import barriers
KARACHI: Pakistan Customs has assured commercial importers of eliminating import barriers and improve facilitations through online system WeBOC.
Dr. Mohammad Nadeem Memon, Collector of Customs, has assured to solve the problems facing the commercial importers at the import level and also provide all possible facilities.
He was talking to a delegation called by Pakistan Chemicals & Dyes Merchants Association (PCDMA) Chairman and former Director of Pakistan Stock Exchange, Amin Yousuf BalgamWala. Amjad Yaqoob, Muhammad Idrees and Mohammad Sabir were also present in the meeting.
The meeting discussed the issues with delegation including WeBOC and said that would be tried to resolve the difficulties of the members of the association on priority basis so that there would be no barrier to imports.
Amin Yusuf Balgamwala, Chairman, PCDMA and former Director of Pakistan Stock Exchange informed about problems and said that PCDMA was always helping in customs price valuation for the last 30 years, but at the import level, commercial importers are facing various problems that need to be addressed.
He requested to the collector of customs that PCDMA represents commercial importers across Pakistan and regional offices are established in Lahore and Faisalabad besides headquarters in Karachi, therefore, the recommendations of the association in the WeBOC should be accepted on regular basis and facilitate PCDMA members with regard to ID.
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Chemical merchants advocate FTR continuation for commercial importers
KARACHI: Chemical merchants have strongly advocated continuation of Final Tax Regime (FTR) for commercial importers in the upcoming budget.
In a statement issued on Saturday Shahid Vaseem, Chairman, Pakistan Chemicals & Dyes Merchants’ Association (PCDMA), said that because commercial importers pay 6 percent advance non-adjustable tax at import stage, whereas industrial importers of same raw material pay only 5.5 percent adjustable/refundable advance tax or avail tax exemption certificate facility, therefore it was not justified to withdraw Final Tax Regime (FTR) from Commercial importers without giving them options of claiming tax refund and facility for issuance of Tax exemption certificate if excess tax is already paid at import stage.
In meeting with PCDMA memebers and leading importers of industrial Raw Materials, Chairman PCDMA, said that assessed value for calculation of customs levies of an industrial raw material whether it is imported by industrial importer or commercial importer; remains same either on the basis of valuation ruling (if available), international scan (if available) or custom data; therefore, chances of under-invoicing eliminated on import of industrial raw materials.
Shahid Vaseem said in his opinion by imposing similar rate of sales tax on industrial raw materials will also eliminate the issue of imports by non-genuine industrial importers and excess imports by the genuine industrial importers, who just import big volumes of industrial raw materials to sale in market at huge profit due to less rate of tax and in some cases got extra ordinary benefits of various SROs. Which resulted in loss of billions of rupees to government revenue.
Shahid Vaseem demanded the Government to provide a level-playing field for commercial importers who are importing industrial raw material and supply these essential raw materials to industries in SME segment. At import stage commercial importers are paying 17+3= 20 percent sales Tax as compared to 17 percent only, if same items are imported directly by industrial importers, this renders our customer industries in SME segment un-competitive in local as well as export markets, thereby eliminating job opportunities and hurting exports of value-added goods.
He explained that 3 percent Additional Sales Tax on import of Industrial Raw Materials if imported by Commercial Importers is irrational and unjustified, because 3 percent ADDITIONAL Sales Tax can only be applied if the Value Addition on raw material is assumed 17.65 percent, which is not possible because there is no process of value addition involved and no inputs such as Land, Buildings, Machinery, Labor, Electricity and Gas etc. are used by commercial importers of same industrial raw materials.
On the contrary the value addition by manufacturers is assumed as 10 percent only and the GST is charged at the rate of 1.7 percent despite all the above inputs.
He claimed that by implementing same rate of taxes and extending benefits of various SROs to commercial importers, similar to the industrial importers of Raw materials for one year will result in significant drop in import volume by the industrial importers, which will prove the misuse of reduce tax facility by the industrial importers and will provide opportunity to the government to identify non-genuine industrial importers who are only existing for importing raw materials for commercial sales.