Govt urged to redefine luxury goods

LAHORE: Pakistan FMCG Importers Association (PFIA) has urged the government to reclassify and redefine luxury goods by striking out grocery products out of this list as those are daily need items.

The government has imposed regulatory duty on a large scale on imported goods, and unjustifiably included grocery items in the list, the PFIA said. It was putting an extra burden on consumers as well as discouraging the importers unnecessarily.

The association raised this demand at its Annual General Meeting (AGM) the other day. The meeting was chaired by its chairman, Anjum Nisar. Members of the association also decided to raise the issue of high customs duties, regulatory duty and other issues being faced by the importers at every forum concerned, including meeting with Finance Minister Asad Umer and Minister for Commerce Abdur Razzak Dawood.

They were of the view that high customs duties and regulatory duty instead of supplementing the government efforts of increasing revenue were resulting in increased smuggling, under-invoicing and other such wrong practices. They said smuggling had broken the backbone of genuine importers who were paying taxes and contributing to the national kitty. The meeting also urged the government to restore the ‘Final Tax Regime’ for importers.