KARACHI: Economic and financial analyst Ateeq Ur Rehman has urged the government to remove import duties/additional custom duties on import of industrial raw material.

This will not only grow the manufacturing industry but also reduce the cost of production.

He said that the government lacks a robust strategy for expanding the tax base. For example paper should be treated as raw material for a printing industry whereas it is heavily taxed, and on the top of it printing material is imported with low duty and taxes.

Imposing taxes on raw material and allowing duty-free import of semi-finished goods, how can a local printing industry survive?

He said that the existing taxpayers are overburdened.

Further it worries the legitimate taxpayer that much of the collection in treasury so far is coming through “indirect taxes”, for a fact the government is still far behind in collecting “direct taxes”.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021

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