FBR urged to take note of malpractices

KARACHI: The Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (UNISAME) has invited the attention of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Shabbar Zaidi to check smuggling, under-invoicing and misdeclaration of foreign and imported goods, a statement said.

UNISAME has urged the government to fully support, facilitate and promote the local industry, which is being destroyed by imports and smuggling of foreign goods on a large scale, making it very difficult for the locally-manufactured goods to compete, it added.

UNISAME President Zulfikar Thaver said that the government without delay must impose heavy regulatory duty on those imported goods, which are manufactured in Pakistan of international standard and do not justify imports.

The amount earned from regulatory duties on such items must be utilised to promote local industry to encourage them to import duty-free plants and equipment, raw material and packing material to make them competitive.

Thaver said that it is shameful to see tons of confectionery, cosmetics and toiletries, stationery, dairy items and textiles, in fact, everything under the sun is imported. Even fruits and vegetables are imported on a daily basis.

The super markets are filled with imported items from across the world. One can see containers offloading at the super markets. These goods are imported with under-invoicing to save duties and many a times imported under misdeclaration.

Secondly he invited the attention of the FBR chairman to the goods imported under Afghan Transit Trade and their abuse. The Afghanis also purchase their dollar requirements from the open markets in Pakistan; thus, creating heavy demand for the foreign currency.

Likewise, the goods, which are smuggled from Iran, are also paid for in dollars on the border. The Union has urged the FBR chairman to take strict measures to look into the illegal businesses harming the local industry.