May 30, 2003	Friday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 27,1424

ISLAMABAD, May 29: The government is considering a proposal to levy duty on import of used parts of computers to protect the local manufacturers.

Official sources told Dawn on Thursday that the proposal was under consideration following the recommendations of the Ministry of Commerce.

The stakeholders have sent their proposals to the ministry asking for imposition of regulatory duty on import of used parts of computers, which they believed is causing harm to the local manufacturers.

The local markets are not only flooded with the second-hand imported parts, but also with complete set of computers which are available at much cheaper prices.

According to the officials, the issue would also be discussed with Ministry of Information Technology before taking any decision on the issue.

They said that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had also recommended to the government to levy 15 per cent GST on software and hardware from the next financial year.

The decision on the proposal would be announced in the forthcoming budget of 2003-04, they added.

The tax authorities have conveyed to the government that the levy of GST on the computers would hurt the IT industry and result in an increase of computer prices.

The sources further said that the decision might harm the government’s move of introducing automation in all the ministries to facilitate the people.