Duty exemptions on 700 items being reviewed

Duty-free items imported during 2009-10 included petroleum products, pulses,vegetables and other essential food items.

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has started a review to revoke exemptions from customs duties previously granted to more than 700 items.

According to documents available with The Express Tribune, duty-free items imported during the previous fiscal year included petroleum products, pulses, fresh and dried vegetables, oil seeds and other essential food items.

Raw materials for agricultural and industrial needs, such as fertilisers, sowing seeds, raw hides, breeding animals, iron ore, raw wood, scrap, basic chemicals and other items included in chapter one to chapter 97 of Pakistan Customs Tariff, worth a total of Rs1.07 trillion, were imported during the fiscal 2009-10.

The duty exemptions on the import of these items are being reconsidered by the FBR and it is expected that customs duties between five and 25 per cent will be imposed.

The Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) and other independent organisations will also be consulted in the process.

The documents also highlight that the special classification provision of chapter 99 allows duty-free imports to privileged persons, charitable educational organisations, scientific and health institutions.

The value of items imported under this clause during last year was Rs91 billion.

A senior official of the FBR explained that previously numerous Statutory Regulatory Orders (SROs) had been issued for the import of duty-free items, but from now on exemptions will be reconsidered and granted only if necessary.

He also mentioned that some goods are exempted from customs duties due to extraordinary circumstances but the SROs issued for their import are used even once the extenuating circumstances cease to exist. The FBR is not going to let this happen from now on, he concluded.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 21^st, 2010.