LAHORE: The All Pakistan Ceramic Tiles Manufacturers Association (APCTMA) has called upon the government to reduce the cost of gas for them, check influx of smuggled and under-invoiced tiles from China and Iran and rationalise import trade price (ITPs) to protect 50,000 jobs in the domestic ceramic tiles industry.

In a statement on Monday, an APCTMA spokesman urged the government to take measures in the ‘mini-budget’ to be announced on Wednesday to protect the local industry, give it a level-playing field to grow and enable it to export.

“By growing domestic ceramic tiles industry, the government will not only save precious foreign exchange but also earn export revenues and taxes,” he said. High energy cost and availability of smuggled tiles, which constituted almost 40pc of the market, were creating hardships for the manufacturers in the domestic market and hampering efforts to explore foreign markets, he added.

The APCTMA spokesman claimed that a majority of the imports from China was being cleared based on the price undertaking and impact of anti-dumping duty had not benefited the local industry.

“Therefore, price undertaking option should be abolished.”

Moreover, the spokesman added, sales tax for tiles industry was 22pc, including 17pc GST, and 2pc extra sales tax and 3pc further tax on sales but commercial importers had to pay only 20pc.

“We urge the government to support the local tiles industry,” he concluded.

Published in Dawn, January 22nd, 2019