KARACHI, June 15: The chairman, All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA), M Waqar Monnoo on Tuesday said that the duty structure on raw materials used by textile industry has not been rationalized in the Finance Bill 2004.

Addressing a press conference at APTMA House, he said that at present duty on acrylic or modacrylin in shape of tow and fibre was 20 per cent but spinners demand to reduce it to 5 per cent.

Instead of reducing duty on tow and fibre, he said duty on acrylic tops was reduced to 10 per cent. This had created an anomaly as duty structure was kept higher for tops than the primary raw materials, he added.

The APTMA chief also raised some other anomalies and said otherwise the fiscal measures announced by the finance minister would create business and investment friendly atmosphere in the country. The decisions taken would bring significant relief to all concerned particularly business community, he maintained.

However, he said new Sales Tax Refund Rules have been framed in Sales Tax Procedure Rules, 2004. Though zero-rating on ginned cotton would resolve the blockage of refunds but for members consuming higher proportions of MMF, timely refund is still a burning issue.

While struggling for extension of scheme of waiver of further tax extended to APTMA members up to June 30, 2004, but a new SRO 508(I)/2004 requires only textile industries to furnish monthly details of sales and purchases made to both registered and unregistered persons, he asserted.

Waqar Monnoo said APTMA would take this issue with relevant authorities as no other industry is required to fulfil such conditions and this was discriminatory and bias.

An opt-out scheme offered to units who could not meet the conditions of SRO 554 and SRO 439 against plant and machinery they had imported is a good step but as the SRO 554 has been superseded by a new SRO which requires the imports of machinery up to Dec 31, 2004 by units whose L/Cs are opened up to June 12, 2004. This conditions, he said was not possible to meet as no supplier could meet such a short period because imports capital goods require six to eight months.

Chairman APTMA further said a few other anomalies arising as a result of measures announced in the Finance Bill 2004 is nothing very abnormal as it happens almost every year. However, he said most of these issues could be resolved on getting clarifications from the revenue authorities.

He said now it was the business community that had to to show its worth and come forward to benefit fully from the concessions and relief given in the budget and help achieve its revenue target of Rs580 billion.