Reduced rate of import duty: FBR releases names of items, active drug ingredients

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has released the names of the items and active pharmaceutical ingredients used by the pharmaceutical sector for payment of reduced or concessionary rate of customs duty on their imports.

The FBR has shared the names of items with the Collectors of Customs through customs budget instructions issued here on Friday.

According to the FBR, in order to incentivise the pharmaceutical sector and to keep the prices stable in the market, following incentives have been given:

(i) 149 Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) were previously importable at concessionary rate of three percent and five percent of customs duty under Part-II, Table-A of Fifth Schedule, which has now been reduced to zero percent and further around 156 APIs also added in the exemption regime under Fifth Schedule.

(ii) Customs duty on import of plant, machinery and equipment has been reduced to five percent with no ACD and RD, if imported by the registered pharmaceutical manufacturers for their own use subject to NOC from MoNHSR&C and local manufacturing condition be removed under Fifth Schedule as these plant and machinery are highly sophisticated.

(iii) Customs duty on raw materials for manufacturing of auto-disable syringes has been reduced to zero percent for the registered manufacturers of Auto-Disable Syringes with quota determination by IOCO and subject to NOC from MoNHSR&C under Fifth Schedule.

(iv) Customs duty on import of Auto-Disable Syringes with or without needles (PCT codes 9018.3110 and 9018.3120) has been reduced to 10 percent under Fifth Schedule.

(v) Customs duty on raw materials, APIs Remdesivir and Sulfobutylate (PCT codes 2934.9990 and 3505.2010) used by the manufacturers of Remdesivir may be reduced to 0% under Fifth Schedule and exemption on import of finished item Remdesivir has been withdrawn to encourage local production.

(vi) To address the reverse cascading issue of pharmaceutical packaging industry where the finished product is on lower tariff rates as compared to its raw materials/inputs, customs duty on import of aluminum foil rolled but not further worked “7 microns to 100 microns” (PCT code7607.1100), and film and sheet of polyamides “20 microns to 40 microns”(PCT code 3920.9200) has been reduced to 0% with nil ACD in Fifth Schedule for registered manufacturers of pharmaceutical packaging subject to quota determination by IOCO in Fifth Schedule.

(vii) ELISA and ELFA are two immunological methods used in the detection of proteins in biological samples especially antibodies and antigens. Only Elisa Eclia Kit was importable at 0% customs duty under Table-E, Part-IIof Fifth Schedule. To provide exemption of customs duty on import of both types of these kits, the words “Elisa Eclia Kit” has been replaced with “Elisa based kits or Eclia Kit”.

(viii) Customs duty on import of raw materials falling under PCT codes5407.5200, 3920.2090 and 3005.9090 has been reduced to five percent for First Aid Bandages Manufacturing Industry with IOCO quota determination in Fifth Schedule.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021