LAHORE: Rice exporters warn of a drastic drop in exports if the government sticks to its decision to shift the sector from the Final Tax Regime (FTR) to the Hybrid Tax Regime.

“We see distress amongst rice, maize and sesame exporters, and they are just fulfilling past commitments and are not ready to seal future orders due to apprehension of tax audits and recovery notices by the FBR.

“The shift from FTR to Hybrid Tax Regime, announced in the budget, will further damage them economically, leaving them uncompetitive in the international market, which is driven by cut-throat competition and subsidies by competing countries,” a delegation of rice exporters told the finance minister.

This discouragement will have a cyclic effect and impact the farmers due to a bumper rice crop of 11 million tonnes plus a sesame crop of 350,000 tonnes, said the exporters led by Haseeb Khan.

They feared that the FBR audits might open avenues of corruption and harassment for exporters doing business at record-high markup rates and electricity costs.

They warned that exports might drop to $2.5 billion in the current fiscal year from $3.88bn in FY24 if the government does not withdraw the tax regime change decision.

Published in Dawn, July 12th, 2024