KARACHI, May 17: As the customs tariffs are expected to be reduced in the next budget, importers have started delaying their shipments for a period of one month to avoid losses that may come their way on paying higher duties.

Though the highest slab of customs duties will be brought down to 25 per cent in the forthcoming budget to meet the IMF conditionalities, there are strong indications that the CBR will also resort to large scale revision and adjustments in other slabs.

Beside bringing down the highest duty slab from 30 per cent to 25 per cent, importers are of view that the CBR will also make large scale adjustments and try to bring down duties on those goods which had been prone to smuggling in the past.

Importers are delaying their shipments for a period of one month for goods originating from Saarc member states because less than two weeks are needed for goods to reach Karachi port. However, those shipments coming from the Far East and require 25 days for arrival, are being delayed by two weeks, a leading importer of Jodia Bazaar told Dawn.

Similarly, there is a considerable slowdown in quantum of transactions in the domestic market where most of the commercial and industrial consumers have restricted their purchases on day- to-day basis.

Unlike in the past when importers used to keep their figures crossed and remained panicky because of rapid fluctuations in the rupee-dollar parity, importers for the last three to four months feel secured because of currency stability, which has almost removed the element of loss from their business.

“I would say presently there is a stability in the market as importers have no fear of wide fluctuation in the currency, which normally resulted in huge losses in the past,” Raees Ashraf Tarmohammad, chairman, Pakistan Commodity Importers Association (PCIA), told Dawn. As a result of this, he said, the prices of imported consumers’ goods and industrial raw materials were also stable.

At present importers are not booking prompt shipments and are advising their suppliers to ensure that shipments reach Karachi port near the budget announcement.

Raees said that among food items, which fell under high duty slabs and were likely to be put under lower slabs in the next budget, would include most of the spices such as turmeric, clove, betel-nut, etc. He said spices always fell under smuggling regime owing to high prices as well as high tariffs, but now the CBR had rectified the tariff in some items, including black pepper, by gradually bringing down the ITP to $950 per ton from $1,500.

The price of black pepper in the world market is around $1,600 per ton.

In the past, he said, around 90 per cent of black pepper was finding its way into the domestic market through smuggling, but now it had receded considerably as no much margin had been left for smuggling of the produce.

As the black pepper is mostly imported through official channels more revenues have started coming to the national exchequer in the form of customs duty, he added.

Similarly, he said after reducing ITP for clove to $6,200 per ton there is rise in its import through official channels.