ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) on Tuesday approved withdrawal of customs duty, additional customs duty and sales tax on import of cotton effective from February 1 till June 30, 2019 to ensure a sufficient supply of cotton for the industry.
The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) also approved regulatory amendments in the Export and Import Policy Order 2016 to increase ease of doing business in Pakistan.
The committee, which met in Islamabad with Finance Minister Asad Umar in the chair, took a number of important decisions on the proposal of the Commerce Division.
The proposal is aimed at facilitating the import of cotton to bridge the demand and supply gap in the country, thereby helping out the textile industry, especially the export segment.
Pakistan’s export have been under-performing for the last few years, even successive rounds of PKR depreciation have failed to boost exports.[the_ad id=”31605″]
Industry is of the view that PKR depreciation wasn’t helping as over 70 percent of the input was imported. Export oriented industry says that stuck up refund claims and expensive and yet unavailability of utilities were hurting exports.
Textile sector accounts for more than 50 percent of Pakistan’s total exports, which are getting uncompetitive by day to Vietnam, India, Bangladesh and Turkey due to high cost of production.
Experts have long been suggesting that the country should tap unconventional markets and promote export of unconventional products instead of relying on textile sector only.
It approved a proposal by the Commerce Division that duty and taxes on all imported vehicles, in new and used condition, under personal baggage or gift scheme will be paid out of foreign exchange arranged by Pakistani nationals themselves or local recipients supported by bank encashment certificate showing conversion of foreign remittance to local currency.