KARACHI: Pakistan Yarn Merchants Association (PYMA) has expressed serious concerns over reports suggesting imposition of regulatory duty on polyester yarns.
Saqib Naseem, PYMA Central Chairman in a statement on Wednesday expressed deep concern over rumors circulating about lobbying for imposition of regulatory duty on imported polyester yarns by local manufacturers of polyester filament yarns.
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He urged Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance, Shaukat Tarin not to succumb to the pressure of local manufacturers, and to reject any proposal for imposition of regulatory duty on imports of polyester filament yarns, especially HS Code 5402.3300 and HS Code 5402.4700.
Appealing in a letter to Finance Advisor Shaukat Tarin, Chairman PYMA said that the local manufacturers of polyester filament yarns were lobbying the concerned agencies, especially the Ministry of Commerce, to impose regulatory duty on imported polyester yarns.
This would be extremely detrimental to the local consumers of polyester filament yarn, and would be against the government’s policy of ensuring the availability of raw materials to the industry and consumers at competitive prices.
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Saqib Naseem said “In the letter that despite the fact that local manufacturers of polyester filament yarns are already enjoying discounted tariffs, efforts to implement regulatory duties will significantly increase the production cost of local industries”, fearing that therefore, no such proposal should be considered which is detrimental to the domestic industries.
PYMA chairman was of the opinion the current custom duty of 11% is rather excessive. For your information the custom duty on polyester staple fiber is 7% and the local manufacturers of PSF seem to be doing with this level of protection. There is no significant production cost difference between polyester staple fiber and polyester filament yarn.
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He added that the weaving and knitting industry (user industry) is already facing a very challenging situation due to very high cotton and polyester yarn prices, and imposition of regulatory duty would be extremely counterproductive especially when the local user industry has to import 65 per cent of its requirements of polyester filament yarn from foreign suppliers.
Saqib Naseem urged the government not to listen to the unjust pressure of local manufacturers of polyester filament yarns to impose regulatory duties, and only take measures to reduce the cost of production of domestic industries and stabilize the economy.
