Daily Times

KARACHI: The indolent conduct of the ministries of Finance (MoF) and Commerce (MoC) and the lethargic approach taken by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) in not taking prompt steps to do away with their own follies have inflicted a loss of millions of dollars in export orders to the leather sector at a 3-day Hong Kong Asia Pacific leather fair.

“Despite several reminders and letters to secretaries of MoF, MoC and FBR officials owing to the non-applicability of the incentive package announced by the prime minister and the inclusion of HS Codes (4112.0000/4113/1000/4113.9000 /4107.1200/4107.9200/4107.9100/4302.1910/4302.1990), which have inadvertently been excluded by the MoC, the high ups remained unmoved”, lamented executive members of the Pakistan Tanners Association (PTA).

The matter was shared with the secretary of the MoF and also with the MoC before the commencement of the Hong Kong trade fair to take prompt action and include the 8 missing HS Codes. Either this, or it was suggested that they at-least make a PTA oral assurance that all missing Codes would be amended so that PTA’s 65 member participants could offer competitive prices to their valued foreign buyers with 5 percent incentive edge to get orders at the fair. However, it was all in vain. AnjumZafar and Agha Saiddain of PTA stated that due to this, 65 PTA member exporter participants remained ‘handcuffed’ at the event.

PTA members have lost great export potential opportunities owing to the ‘sad state of affairs’ of these prime federal bodies.

“We were in constraints and could not quote competitive prices and have lost orders to participating competitors-Brazil, Argentina, India, Bangladesh and others in general. The next six months export order bookings have also vanished”.

Interestingly, an SRO was issued bearing 62 on February 2017, instead the three least important HS Codes were incorporated – which relates to hardly 1 or 2 percent of the industry. Resultantly, 98/99 percent of exporting manufacturers of finished tanned leather have not been able to receive any benefit.

After the PTA’s immediate intervention, the MoC admitted its mistake and prepared a summary duly approved by its secretary and submitted it to MoF. Nevertheless, even though it was an anomaly, it has to be approved by the finance minister to issue a revised SRO in order to incorporate the missed 8 core HS Codes.

The PTA lamented saying, “We have lost great export potential opportunities in Hong Kong which could have been in the millions of dollars. This simply brought a negative impact on exports from the leather sector which has already declined by more than 6 percent to $8.2 billion from July 2016 to February 2017.”

The PTA appealed to the PM Nawaz Sharif and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar to look into the matter and give the final approval to the summary which will include the necessary remaining 8 HS Codes without any further delay.