ISLAMABAD, May 3: The National Tariff Commission (NTC) is considering removing tariff anomaly pertaining to finished infusion giving sets and its raw material as proposed by the local pharmaceutical industry.

The finished infusion giving sets and its raw material attract same rate of customs duty of 20 per cent. Syringes, needles, IV cannulas and infusion giving sets are disposable medical devices, which fall under the same category.

An application for removal of this tariff anomaly was submitted by Medipak limited, a local manufacturer of infusion giving sets with NTC for consideration.

The NTC sought comments and suggestion from all stakeholders on the issue within next seven days and scheduled a public hearing at the commission office on May 16 before taking any decision.

The applicant stated that the manufacturers of disposable syringes are enjoying concessionary tariff rates — five per cent on imported raw material, such as printing ink, epoxy bond, PVC (medical grade), plastic film (medical grade), PVC gaskets, rubber gaskets, paper labels and silicone oil, used to manufacturer syringes under SRO565 of 2006.

It further stated that manufacturers of disposable IV cannula allow the same benefit on raw material, such as needles, membrane filter paper, Teflon tubes, and blister paper, used for the manufacturers of IV cannula under the same SRO.

Disposable infusion giving sets have no advantage of concessionary tariff rates on its raw material. However, it has same application as syringes and IV cannulas.

In the past, disposable infusion giving sets had been availing tariff benefits on imported raw packing material (PVC medical grade under form S).

According to the applicant, finished imported infusion giving sets are attracting a 20 per cent customs duty and are imported at $0.06 to $0.07 whereas cost of indigenous production of these sets is very high because of high rate of customs duty on imported raw material.

The local manufacturer has requested for concessionary tariff rates on its raw and packing material under SRO-565 of 2006 as currently available to other medical devices, such as disposable syringes, disposable IV cannula manufacturers.