April 9, 2003	Wednesday	Safar 6, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, April 8: The National Tariff Commission chairman, Dr Faizullah Khilji, here on Tuesday directed the authorities concerned to conduct a study on the nature of competition faced by the indigenous soap industry from imported soap as well as its export prospects.

While presiding over a public hearing held at the commission headquarter, he also asked the industry concerned to provide data on revenue impact of the proposed duty concession.

The hearing was conducted on the request of local industry for duty concession on edible oils for use in production of stearic acid, glycerin etc from 25 per cent to 10 per cent.

The applicant industry, Nimir Industrial Chemicals (Pvt) Limited, had also requested that the existing rate of customs duty on palm stearin be also reduced to five per cent.

The representative of another firm, Delta Industries (Pvt) Limited, stated that soybean oil and coconut oil were also used in the manufacture of alkyd resins and oelo industries as raw material.

At present, custom duty on the import of alkyd resins is 25 per cent, while C&F price of soybean oil crude is $500 per metric ton and fixed custom duty on it is Rs9,050 per metric ton or 31 per cent.

“This is an anomaly because the custom duty on the final product is 25 per cent,” he said.

In the new budget, it was being further reduced to 20 percent, he pointed out and requested that custom duty on soybean oil and coconut for the manufacture of alkyd resins and oleo products be reduced to 5 per cent under special SRO.

The representative of Unilever expressed the view that grant of concession to a specific industry was undesirable, in the first place.

He and representative of another industry said if at all the request of M/s Nimir was accepted, the duty on the raw materials used by soap industry be also similarly reduced.

He also cautioned that the concession might be misused to the detriment of soap industry already hard put to it staying afloat in the face of competition from soaps, whether smuggled, or imported legitimately.

The response of the Pakistan Oilseeds Development Board, Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock was also read out. It had stated that any change in duty structure of the oilseeds other than coconut might affect its plan to maximize indigenous production of oilseeds.