The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry has called upon the government to remove all customs and regulatory duties on the primary raw material of steel industry like melt able steel scrap in the budget to counter the cost increase caused by currency devaluation
ISLAMABAD (Pakistan Point News / Online - 13th June, 2019) The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry has called upon the government to remove all customs and regulatory duties on the Primary raw material of steel industry like melt able steel scrap in the budget to counter the cost increase caused by Currency devaluation, interest rate hike, raise in power tariff and new taxation measures.RafatFarid, Acting President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry said that government has abolished the special procedures of sales tax for steel industry in the budget 2019-20, however, he stressed that government should come up with some policy interventions for reducing the cost of doing business for this important industry so that it could play more effective role in the economic development and exports of the country.
He said that if duties on re-melt able scrap were not removed, capacity utilizations of steel industry would decrease leading to drastic fall in government revenue.He emphasized that government should provide a level playing field between various sectors of steel industry including steel melting, re-rolling, ship breaking and other downstream sectors. He said there were various tax anomalies due to which substitute products have different tariff structures that created distortions in the market.
