PESHAWAR, Jan 19: The CBR has increased customs duty for clearing crockery and kitchen wares from the Peshawar dry port to bring rates at par with those collected at the Karachi dry port , but NWFP's importers and businessmen have voiced concern at the move.

The Central Board of Revenue's controller-general valuation recently enforced the increased customs duty on crockery and kitchen wares imported through the Peshawar dry port.

Business circles told Dawn that some 'affected' importers had in the Peshawar High Court challenged this increase which the controller-general valuation, Karachi, had formally enforced.

Till July 2003, the rates of duty charged at the Peshawar dry port on the imported crockery and kitchen items were on the lower side as compared to those charged at Karachi and Lahore.

The CBR has taken the step to promote import of foreign products through legal channels in the Frontier province. But lower rates in Peshawar, according to official sources, were like incentives to local importers who were facing a tough competition from smuggled goods found in abundance in the NWFP markets.

However, since September 2003, business circles said, the CBR had started collecting extra amount, through bank drafts, from the importers of crockery and kitchen wares, over and above the rates charged at the Peshawar dry port.

"Recently the CBR has informed the importers about the adjustment of deferential amount, paid over and above the lower side rates, in favour of the CBR ignoring the importers' stand on the issue," said Ibrahim Shinwari, a leading importer of crockery and glass wares from Khyber agency, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).

He said the importers were of the view that the CBR should continue with its policy of incentives because the NWFP's importers were still facing tough competition at the hands of smuggled items.

Mr Arooj Ansari, a customs clearance agent of Peshawar, said the move of formally introducing the high-side customs duty might drift the business of legal imports from Peshawar to other dry ports of the country.

Mr Shinwari said his firm, like several other importers of Peshawar, had recently received a letter from the authorities concerned of the CBR with intimation that the deferential amount had been adjusted.

Mr Ansari, when contacted, said that all such importers had been given an opportunity to explain their position in front of the relevant customs authorities. "Three importers have challenged the CBR's move and the court has admitted their petitions for full hearing," said Mr Ansari.