ISLAMABAD, June 20: The federal government is revising the National Tariff Commission law to increase the Commission’s autonomy in view of its growing role in management of the WTO-related instruments, according to an official source.

Established to remove anomalies in the ever-changing tax regime vis-a-vis the domestic industry, the NTC is responsible for administering the anti-dumping ordinance, circumvention law etc.

The Safeguards law as required under the World Trade Organization agreements too is on the anvil. The source, however, clarified that it will be promulgated only after it is signed by the president. The situation now is that the federal cabinet passed it recently and it now awaits the president’s assent.

The Commission frequently receives complaints from the national industry against various taxation measures. In its quasi-judicial capacity, it holds public hearings to find out the views of various stakeholders. If convinced that relief is necessary to save the industry from unfair competition, it recommends the appropriate changes in tariffs to the government.

As regards the anti-dumping law, it has so far received only one complaint and it is against a South African exporter. The necessary notice has been issued to the company complained against to present its case.

In case, it is established after appropriate investigation that the said company has indeed indulged in dumping operations to the detriment of the local manufacturer, the Commission may impose anti-dumping duties on the products dumped by the foreign exporter.

In reply to a question, the source said the Commission did possess sufficient technical expertise to deal with any anti- dumping cases. The reason it has so far received only one complaint so far is that the interested parties did not send properly documented applications, he added.

At present, the Commission is functioning as an attached department of the Ministry of Commerce. But with the passage of time and increase in number of anti-dumping/circumvention cases, its workload can be expected to increase both qualitatively and quantitatively.

The duties imposed by it under the dumping law would have to be collected on its behalf by the Central Board of Revenue, as the only tax-collecting agency of the federal government. Before long, it may, therefore, be considered necessary to shift it to the Ministry of Finance.

Even in the short term, it may find itself facing an unusual proliferation of complaints against the government’s policy of persistently reducing the tariffs on imports.