May 18, 2002	Saturday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 5, 1423

ISLAMABAD, May 17: Pakistan Ship Breaking Association (PSBA) has asked the government to reduce the existing tax rate on ship plates from the next financial year.

The demand was made at a meeting of representatives of PSBA and steel re-rollers with Federal Commerce Minister Abdul Razak Dawood, here on Friday. The office-bearers of the association told Dawn that the minister was informed that due to imposition of various taxes on ship plates, the ship breakers were facing financial losses.

According to the official announcement, the minister commented that further tariff restructuring was being proposed in the coming budget to transform the ship breaking industry into more viable production sector.

The meeting also proposed to evolve a mechanism rationalizing the prices of ship breakers vis-a-vis steel mills and steel melters.

The minister apprised them about the government’s business-friendly policies aimed at bringing market mechanism and inculcating qualitative approach.

He was of the view that ship breakers, jointly with Pakistan Steel could gear up their activities in meeting the ever increasing demands of domestic as well as regional construction industry.

Dawood said the government has already undertaken many measures to strengthen this industry and some conducive environmental steps will form the part of coming trade policy.

The PSBA representatives told the minister that their industry was 100 per cent documented and assured him that they would continue playing their due role in revenue generation. While the representative of the steel re-rolling informed the meeting that 120 mills were operating all over the country to cater for 20 lakh tons of finished construction material and providing employment to thousands of people.

The government had recently levied central excise duty (CED) at a rate of Rs500 per ton on the import of ship plates and at domestic level on plates, sheets, slabs, rods, bars and other scrap obtained through any process of dismantling or breaking of a vessel or any other floating structure. Similarly, the government had also raised the rate of general sales tax from 15 per cent to 20 per cent on ship plates.