KARACHI - The Pakistan Soap Manufacturers Association (PSMA) has formulated budget proposals 2009-2010 and sought concessions in terms of taxation. In a meeting of Pakistan Soap Manufacturers Association held under the Chairmanship of Mohammad Ali Zia in Karachi finalised the budget suggestions and demanded relief in duty of essential Raw Materials used in Soap Industry. The PSMA chairman expressed that the industry relies mainly on imported raw materials which are basic and should not attract higher rates of duties but which unfortunately have been subjected to high rates of import duty. These need to be cut down & brought down to not more than 10 per cent while only one raw material i.e. Tallow must be brought down to 5 per cent. He further demanded that import duties are brought down to no more than 10 per cent on all our raw materials, the duty on Residue of Fatty Substances is 20 per cent which should be lowered to 10 per cent. The Chairman enlightened that our members generally face problem in clearance of their consignments mainly in Model Custom Collectorate. The raw materials, whose custom duty is fixed in Tariff, clear under auto clearance, but computerised system does not accept raw materials those are given concessionary duty at percentage under SRO. These consignments always shift to collectorate appraisement which causes unnecessary delay in clearance. Furthermore it is common practice of Model Custom Collector and Collector Appraisement to take 5 to 8 days for examination of raw materials, for which huge demurrages have to pay by our members as well as unnecessary delay in clearance. It is therefore requested to wave the examination of industrial raw materials. Mohammad Ali Zia presented his viewpoint that every one is concerned about the depleting reserves of foreign exchange in our country. To over come this, we can adopt the system as in Turkey, such as that if a company exports products worth US $ 1 million, they are entitled to import raw material for the same value completely duty free. It must be considered in order to save hundred of millions in foreign exchange. Terming the rate of Sales Tax he said that the rate of Sales Tax should be considerably reduced for fast industrial growth and economic uplift and also for controlling inflation. We suggest that Sales Tax on all items should not be more than 10 per cent. The PSMA chairman suggested that the Federal Excise Duty, which is imposed at import stage and Special Federal Excise Duty at manufacturing stage should be abolished, as it is another form of taxation.