Government is losing approximately Rs 5,000 million annually on import of tyres on lack of classification in some import categories.
In January 2013, the local tyre industry in a meeting with Customs officials advised them to pursue the case with the Chinese Custom authorities in order to assess the true value of tyres being imported.
The local industry said categories exist for all types of tyres along with the related duty levels should be classified allowing in ‘others’ category as this is causing loss to the national economy.
Valuation Department of Pakistan Customs is helping tyre importers by not increasing Import Trade Price (ITP), which is detrimental to both the local tyre industry and national economy.
Customs has been busy holding meaningless meetings with the representatives of local tyre industry and importers, which was another way of giving time to importers importing under-invoiced tyres from China and other sources, said an industry source.
This is simply a delaying tactic for past three years, which in turn is a way to keep on importing tyres on extremely low ITP, said the source.
The local industry asked for at least 30-40 percent increase in the ITP of tyres being imported from China to give some relief to the local industry, he added.
He said fresh valuation ruling for tyres and tubes under section 25A of the Customs Act 1969 was supposed to be null and void in December 2013. After a lapse of almost three months there was no fresh valuation ruling, which was evident of the Customs’ inability.