KARACHI: The Federa­tion of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) has urged the government to remove various duties on raw materials used in the leather industry and also waive quarantine requirement on the import of raw hides and skins.

During a meeting with a delegation of Pakistan Tanners Association (PTA) on Tuesday, FPCCI President Ghazanfar Bilour said that additional regulatory duties on import of various basic tanning chemicals and quarantine requirement were hampering productivity and exports of the leather sector.

Mr Bilour said leather is the second most profitable export-oriented industry and needs to be supported by giving subsidies in lab testing, matching grant for setting up effluent treatment plants and cutting down duty drawback on export of finished leather.

He also urged on the government to accelerate the process of releasing duty drawback, sales tax, income tax and other levies collected so that leather exporters could meet their future export commitments with a better cash flow.

Published in Dawn, January 3rd, 2018