KARACHI - FPCCI President Ghazanfar Bilour has urged the government to remove various duties on the import of leather levied under different SROs and quarantine requirements on import of raw hides and skins.

He was talking to a delegation of Pakistan Tanners Association (PTA), led by its Chairman Amanullah Aftab, which called on him. He was accompanied by Gulzar Firoz, Ejaz Bhomal, Aziz Ahmed, Shafi Ahmed, Imran Sheikh. Former president FPCCI S M Muneer, Senior Vice President FPCCI Mazhar Ali Nasir and Vice President FPCCI Tariq Haleem along with the Secretary General FPCCI Dr Iqbal Thaheem also attended the meeting.

The delegation apprised President FPCCI about the problems of leather sector in Pakistan. President FPCCI said that additional regulatory duty on import of various basic tanning chemicals and quarantine requirement imposed by the government are hampering the productivity of the leather sector which ultimately affecting the leather exports of the country.

He said that it is the 2nd largest export earning sector representing highly dynamic and value added industry in leather and leather products besides being job oriented sector. This sector may be facilitated subsidies in lab testing, matching grant for setting up effluent treatment plants, unilateral slashing down the rates of duty drawback on export of finished leather goods and accelerating the process of releasing DDB, Sales Tax, Income Tax and DLTL claims.

The President FPCCI further said that rather than providing facilities to the tanning industries the authorities are imposing duties and conditions which are creating problems for these industries. S M Muneer said that the government should focus on export and take suitable measures to enhance the country’s exports.

He said that despite global recession and other domestic and international bottlenecks the tanning industry is actively engaged in doing their export oriented business as a result thereof the exports of leather & leather products are gradually increasing.