KARACHI: Federal Budget FY22 has proposed reduction/exemption of Customs Duty (CD), Additional Customs Duty (ACD) and Regulatory Duty (RD) on import of goods falling under 589 PCT codes to incentivize the textile industry.
Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin, presenting the budget, also proposed reduction/exemption of CD, ACD and RD for cables and optical fiber manufacturers; exemption on raw materials for paint industry, chemical and artificial leather industry, electronics manufacturing industry.
In order to provide relief to common man, government has proposed reduction of ACD on goods falling under 2436 tariff lines pertaining to 20 percent customs duty slab from 7.0 percent to 6.0 percent.
Shaukat Tarin also announced extension in exemption from customs duties on import of COVID-19 related items for further six month.
Finance Minister also announced rationalization of Regulatory Duty (RD) on import of mobile phones to encourage import substitution, and increase in rates of RD on import of non-essential and luxury items to support local industry.
To improve ease of doing business, a new Uniform Export Facilitation Scheme is being proposed, which will be phased out in next two years.
Imran Khan led government also plans establishment of Border Sustenance Markets to mitigate the problems faced by the people residing in border areas due to fencing and counter-smuggling measures.
Introduction of a concept of Common bonded warehousing to encourage Small and Medium Enterprises.
Federal budget has also proposed empowering Collector of Customs to determine customs value there by facilitating trade.
Government also proposed enabling the Director General Valuation to take appropriate decision on appeal and capping the time limit for such proceedings. Facilitation of trade by avoiding time consumed in unnecessary litigations.
Government will also allow the importers to amend manifest till berthing event without seeking approval from custom authorities and hence ease of doing business.
It is proposed to enable customs authorities to allow bonafide amendment in into-bonds goods declaration and thus facilitate trade.
Collectors are allowed to extend warehousing period for six months to reduce the processing time of the requests and promote ease of doing business.
In order to strengthen Customs enforcement, inclusion of master bill of lading and certificate of origin in the existing definition of document to discourage origin fraud is proposed.
Inclusion of the retailing in definition of smuggling to discourage retailers from selling smuggled goods is also proposed. Government has also decided to making shipping lines responsible for re-export of banned items imported in commercial quantities.
Federal budget has also proposed increasing the pitch of fine in case of non-placement of invoice and packing list in container to inculcate compliance, while vehicles used repeatedly for smuggling would be denied release against redemption fine.