22 May 2004	Saturday	02 Rabi-us-Saani 1425

KARACHI, May 21: Motorcycle Spare Parts Importers and Dealers Association (MSPIDA) chairman Abdul Wahid Shaikh has urged the government to cut 20 per cent import duty on spare parts in order to discourage smuggling in the country.

Speaking at an annual dinner of the MSPIDA on Thursday, he said that a cumulative impact of all taxes and duties on import of spare parts ranged between 55 and 60 per cent, giving a clear edge to the smugglers to dump the local markets.

MSPIDA member Iftikhar Ahmed Shaikh said that smuggled parts had captured 25 per cent market share, while the market share of local assemblers and importers was 15 and 25 per cent, respectively.

He demanded that import duty on spare parts should be brought down to 10pc in the new budget to discourage smuggling from Afghan and Chinese borders. Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Siraj Kassam Teli, who was chief guest at the occasion, said that he had already sent MSPIDA proposals to the government.

He said the only way to check smuggling was to curtail import duties as the successive governments had failed to check illegal arrival of items into Pakistan. "It is a fact that smuggling cannot be controlled through border checking."

Mr Teli linked the deteriorating law and order situation to the politics. He criticized the negative projection of situation in Pakistan on foreign channels that discouraged foreign investors.