Small soap makers under threat

LAHORE: Smaller soap manufacturing units are closed while only big companies with multiple product lines are surviving since the imposition of seven percent additional custom duty (ACD) on Palm stearin and stoppage of tallow import from India after suspension of bilateral trade.

Pakistan Soap Manufacturers Association (PSMA) Chairman Zafar Mahmood said the soap manufacturing units in the small and medium enterprises (SME) sector were on verge of collapse, and might close down if corrective measures were not be taken by the government. He was chairing a meeting of the management committee of the PSMA.

The meeting observed that by banning the cheaper source of soap industry’s raw material and making the other source highly expensive through levy of ACD, the government had thrown soap out of reach of the poor.

Consequently, small factories, facing a drastic cut in demand, have closed down their operations, leaving many workers out of jobs under the current difficult inflationary economy.

The soap industry was using tallow as raw material to produce laundry soap, which was being imported from India and after ban on imports from India in August last year, the import of tallow was also banned. “Import of tallow in Pakistan is subject to Halal certification and there is no other country from where Halal certified Tallow can be imported,” Mahmood said.