LAHORE: The Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI) urged the government on Friday to lay foundation of an industrial revolution by abolishing customs, regulatory and additional duties on around 2,800 tariff lines for raw material.

“The manufacturing sector is the most important factor in the economic growth and it should be energised through supportive measures. This sector is the path to development, creates jobs and much-needed revenue/foreign exchange for the state,” LCCI President Almas Hyder said in a press release.

The business community is passing through financial crunches due to high cost of doing business that is below the par growth of manufacturing sector and exports of the country. It is of the view that the finest quality of Pakistani goods impresses the international buyers but the Chinese, Indian, Bangladeshi and products of various other countries get the benefit of low input cost.

Mr Hyder said there were around 2,800 tariff lines of raw material and although the government had exempted customs duty (CD) on more than 1,650 raw material/industrial inputs in the Federal Budget 2019-20 on demand of the LCCI, there were some major raw material lines that were not included in this list. “Another review is needed in this regard so that around 1,200 more raw material lines can be included in the list for duty exemption,” the LCCI president added.

“This would enhance the competitiveness of our local industry and enable it to compete with smuggling, under-invoicing and mitigate the effects of low tariff free trade agreements (FTAs). Furthermore, it will help the government eliminate many statutory regularity orders (SROs) and close many doors of corruption,”

The LCCI chief said the businessmen wanted to contribute heavily to the economic uplift of the country, provided their genuine issues were resolved.

Published in Dawn, June 22nd, 2019