KARACHI, April 29: Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) has urged the government to allow import of second hand machinery and spare parts in the new Trade Policy 2003-2004.

KCCI feels that the foreigners charge very high prices for their existing and new technologies. As a result, new industries are becoming reluctant to go for expansion, balancing and modernization.

In its proposal for trade policy 2003-2004, presented to the government, the KCCI said several machinery, imported previously, are not being manufactured abroad, therefore, their spare parts are neither manufactured there nor locally. Therefore the ban has rendered several machineries unoperational and obsolete for want of spare parts.

The government should allow the import of used machinery and spare parts, the KCCI said.

The chamber has also been demanding of the government to lift the ban on import of second-hand and reconditioned boilers as the local industry cannot afford to import the new boilers because of high cost. It is evident that when used industrial machines are imported, the exporter in their shipments always include the boiler in the package.

The KCCI also demanded lifting of the ban on import of used cars to meet the local demand and to provide competitive environment for the local producers. The Chamber said that the cars have become very costly after the ban on import of used car from February 1994.

On macro policy issues, the KCCI urged the government to avoid frequent changes in power tariff like the 12 paisa increase the NEPRA had recently allowed to WAPDA. Upward changes in power tariff increased the cost of production of industrial goods and services.

The government should also urgently clear the sales tax refunds, amounting to billions of rupees due to which exporters are facing liquidity problems.

The Chamber urged the government to take steps that could open up avenues of trade with countries of regional trading blocs.

In its export policy proposals, the KCCI said the weighted average lending rate is still above 10 per cent, which was too high despite cut by private banks. State Bank should intensify its endeavour and should persuade commercial banks to further cut their lending rates.

Despite removing some irritants in the Duty and Tax Remission Rules (DTRE) by the CBR, the chamber feels that there still exists some room for improvement in the scheme.

The KCCI urged the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) to organize international fairs for the promotion of items like

engineering goods so that export of non-traditional items mainly to African and Far Easter countries, South American markets and Australia was motivated.

The Chamber hopes that the government would come out with such a policy in light of KCCI’s trade policy proposals that could help in accelerating the economic growth rate as well as rate of investment. The government should address issues like exorbitant utility charges, involvement of cumbersome procedures pertaining to settlement of duty drawback/sales tax refunds claims.