ISLAMABAD - The Ministry of Commerce will present draft of National Tariff Policy in today’s meeting of the federal cabinet for simplifying the existing tariff structure for enhancing economic activity with the focus on exports.
The federal cabinet under the chair of Prime Minister Imran Khan will take up the National Tariff Policy. The Ministry of Commerce will present draft of the Policy in the meeting. The policy has been drafted by Commerce Division and National Tariff Commission to facilitate local manufacturers, including small and medium enterprises.
The tariff policy draft recommends gradual reduction in the duty on raw material and machinery imports for export-oriented industries and further tariff slabs are proposed to be fixed at 5 percent, 10 per cent, 15 per cent and 20 per cent. For rationalising tariff slabs, it was suggested that the tariff lines currently at 16pc be brought down to 15pc; those at 11pc be lowered to 10pc, and the tariff lines in Fifth Schedule from 4-9pc be merged into a 5pc general slab. The slab structure will retain cascading of nominal tariffs with progressive stages of manufacturing. Officials of the ministry said that National Tariff Policy (NTP) was drafted in a fashion to make exports more competitive and facilitate participation of local manufacturers, including small and medium enterprises (SMEs), in global and regional value chains.
According to the draft of the NTP, the difference in the rates of tariff for commercial importers and the industrial users of raw materials, intermediate and capital goods will be eliminated in 3 years time to reduce misuse of such differentials and to provide access to such essential materials for SMEs. The nascent industry will be provided time-bound protection, which will cover payback period of financing and investment. The protection will be phased out gradually to make the protection regime predictable and facilitate the investment decisions.