ISLAMABAD, July 6: The Pakistan Vanaspati Manufacturer's Association (PVMA) has criticized the Central Board of Revenue for providing duty concession to a multinational company on import of crude palm oil (CPO), which it believes will create an uneven playing field for other manufacturers.

Speaking at a news conference here on Tuesday, PVMA chairman Shaikh Ikram said the government in the budget 2004-05 had increased M/s Evian Oils and Fats annual import quota of CPO to 2,20,000 tons and also reduced the import duty on it.

He said the duty rate fixed in the budget for Evian Oils was at Rs9,000 per ton of CPO as against the rate of Rs9,500 per ton fixed for others. The PVMA chairman said that Rs500 per ton difference in duty would give an edge to M/s Evian over other manufacturers.

In reply to a question, Mr Ikram said that Rs220 million refund of around 94 ghee manufacturers was withheld by the tax authorities during the last two years. He said that an association delegation would soon meet the CBR chairman for early release of the withheld refunds.

He warned that if the CBR did not release the refunds at the earliest the manufacturers might be forced to close down their businesses. Answering a question, he said that due to rationalization of sales tax on ghee in the budget, the PVMA members had reduced prices of the commodity by Rs50-60 per 16kg tin.

"The ghee manufactured by the PVMA members duly meets the government's prescribed standards of quality." Mr Ikram said that the factory established by the Afghan government at the Chaman border would have an impact on the local manufacturing of ghee and oil.

Replying to a question, he said the government had withdrawn the import of ghee from the DTRE scheme on the plea that it resulted in a huge revenue loss to the kitty. The PVMA chief warned the government that any change in central excise duty levied on ghee mills located in the FATA and PATA would have an adverse effect on vegetable ghee/cooking oil units in the settled areas.