ISLAMABAD, Feb 5: The Central Board of Revenue (CBR) is considering a proposal to further scale down the rates of duty and taxes on the smuggled prone items during the upcoming budget of 2005-06.

A senior official told Dawn that at the direction of the CBR chairman a committee had been constituted to identify the smuggled prone items and recommend the extent of reduction in duty and taxes on them to make these items less attractive for smuggling.

According to the official, the preliminary calculation showed that smuggling of tyres, tea, used auto parts, crockery, telephones, clothes etc., were constantly increasing, which resulted into a revenue loss to the national kitty.

The official said that on these and other items to be identified, it was likely to reduce the customs duty, sales tax and withholding tax in order to encourage its regular import.