LAHORE: Pakistan FMCG Association has urged the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to bring down all customs duties and taxes on all imported items from present 70 percent to 30 percent. The demand was raised at a meeting of the core committee of the Association held the other day with its Chairman Anjum Nisar in the chair. The meeting was convened to discuss a four point agenda with special focus on curbing the menace of smuggling. The meeting demanded bringing down the duties and taxes on imports to 30 percent, making customs valuation departments at Lahore and Islamabad more active and stopping the smuggling especially through Afghanistan causing irreparable loss to the national exchequer and legal importers. The meeting also urged the government to take stern action against facilitators of the smugglers. The Association also decided to hold a convention in Lahore in the month of September and later another in Karachi in October this year. The association decided to invite all the importers and retailers to the convention to discuss the issues being faced by them and devise a unanimous policy for their solution. The meeting was attended by Association’s Patron in Chief Nasim Chawla, Senior Chairman Pervez Shakeel, Senior Vice Chairman Nafees ur Rehman Bari, Vice Chairman Muhammad Ejaz Tanveer, Secretary General Ali Tariq Mattoo and Joint Secretary Zeeshan Saleem Bukhshi. Published in Daily Times, July 12th , 2017.