Finance minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali on Thursday proposed rationalising at the import level the minimum value of certain products, including cotton and synthetic fabrics, for imposing duty to safeguard the local industry.
The finance minister in his proposed budget for the financial year 2024-25 suggested increasing the minimum value of cotton fabrics and printed cotton at the import level to $4 a kilogram from exiting $3 a kilogram.
He also proposed increasing the minimum value of synthetic fabrics from $3 a kilogram to $4.50 a kilogram.
Waiving all other duties and taxes, the finance minister also proposed imposing 1 per cent customs duty on purified terephthalic acid and mono-ethylene glycol, the raw materials of polyester (synthetic) staple fibre and pet chips used in the textile industry.
The minister in his budget speech said that it was observed that the total tax incidence on the finished goods was less than its raw materials.
鈥業n order to remove this discrepancy and for the protection of the domestic industry, I propose to impose 1 per cent customs duty on PTA and MEG and waive all other duties and taxes on these two raw materials,鈥� Mahmood said.
The finance minister also proposed waiving all other taxes except customs duty of 5 per cent and advance income tax for importing chiller having capacity of 50 tonnes or more.
Chiller is used as essential capital equipment in various industries and a total duty of 104.68 per cent is applicable to the import of the item, which is not conducive to the related industries, he said.