LAHORE -  The imposition of additional tax on cement in the budget 2017-18 would further reduce domestic consumption as well as the government revenue, the industry stakeholders said on Saturday.

They said that the government is expecting to collect additional revenue by enhancing tax on the cement industry but in fact the revenue will be declined because of lower consumption. They said the industry had been warning the planners to reduce excise duty and import duty on coal and check import of under invoiced cement from Iran. They regretted that instead of reducing duties the government slapped additional tax on cement in the budget of outgoing financial year.

They said the huge decline in domestic demand in June was shocking for the industry that fears further erosion of demand as a result of new taxation. The statistics released by the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA) revealed that during the year 2016-17 domestic cement despatches by north zone mills were 29.141 million tons and export despatches were 3.150 million tons depicting a growth of 7.72 percent and negative growth of 18.22 percent, respectively. Domestic cement despatches by south zone mills were 6.511 million tons and export despatches were 1.514 million tons depicting a growth of 9.47 percent and negative growth of 25.10 percent, respectively.

The overall growth in cement despatches during the year 2016-17 was a mere of 3.71 percent. The capacity utilisation for the year 2016-17 was 86.90 percent.

The industry despatched 2.727 million tons of cement in June 2017 against despatches of 3.351 million tons in June 2016. For the first time in 11 months cement despatches declined below 3 million tons, they said.