KARACHI, June 18: Second-hand clothes would cost 40-50 per cent more to the poor due to sharp increase in the sales tax on import of used clothes from four to 20pc in the 2013-2014 budget.

Mohammad Usman Farooqui, General Secretary, Pakistan Second-Hand Clothing Merchants Association, in a statement, said that previous governments had always given relaxation on duty and taxes on import of used clothes to lessen the rising cost of living on the poor, but this government has come heavy on the poor as they have withdrawn this facility for the poor. He said that the prior to new budget 2013-2014, there was five per cent duty, four per cent sales tax and three per cent income tax on import of second hand clothes (HS Code 6309.0000).

In the new budget, high tax has been levied, and benefit of SRO 1125(I) 2011 had been taken away.

Usman urged the Finance Minister to restore the previous four per cent sales tax on import of second hand clothes for the benefit of the poor. Used clothes mainly arrive from US, Japan, Europe, Korea, and Australia.