ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of National Food Security and Research (MNFS&R)'s Department of Plant Protection (DPP) has issued import permits in two phases in compliance of decision of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) in order to counter wheat shortage in the country.

The MNFS&R has also constituted a monitoring committee to look after issues pertaining to the import of wheat. The committee was headed by the additional secretary, MNFS&R as chairman with addition to representative of the Wheat Importers Association (WIA), said an official.

He said that to assure importers, key decisions were taken by the ECC of the Cabinet in its meeting held on July 15th.

According to the ECC's decision, imported wheat will be exempted from the Anti-Hoarding Act imposed by the provincial governments on producing verified import record by the importers.

The Sindh government is to be approached to waive off the excise and taxation charges of 1.25 percent on import value of wheat. According to an official statement, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) would arrange inter-bank dollar exchange cover to wheat importers, as is provided to other industries.

Price mechanism for imported wheat will be considered, in consultation with the importers in a meeting with the Advisor to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh.

It says that apart from this, import of wheat through the private sector for unlimited period, in the HS Code Category of wheat grain-1001.1900 and 1001.9900, few taxes and duties have been abolished including, regulatory duty 60 percent, custom duty 11 percent, sales tax 17 percent, and withholding tax six percent.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020