KARACHI, July 10: The Pakistan Kiryana Merchants Association (PKMA) has urged the government to remove discrimination in the rate of import duty on black tea and green tea, which has emerged as an anomaly in the budget for 2004-05.

PKMA senior vice-chairman Jaffer Kudia in a letter to CBR chairman Abduallah Yousuf pointed out that previously import duty on black and green tea had remained same but in the budget 2004-05, the duty on black tea was reduced to 10 from 20 per cent but import duty on green tea remained same.

Even a six per cent withholding tax on tea import, which had been reduced on black tea, has not been slashed to two per cent on green tea, Mr Kudia said and urged the government to remove this discrimination.