President of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) Muffasar Atta Malik has advised the government to reduce the exorbitant duties and taxes imposed on the import of dry milk powder in order to encourage its legal imports and effectively counter the rising smuggling of this essential household commodity.

In a statement issued, President KCCI said that dry milk powder is widely being smuggled through Chaman and Torkham borders without any check and balance. Due to high rate of duties and taxes, huge quantities of dry milk are landing in the Pakistani markets through the misuse of Afghan Transit Trade, which not only causes heavy revenue loss but also discourages the legal imports of this import product, he added.

He said that a delegation of Milk Powder Importers led by Iqbal Tayyab, during their recent visit to Karachi Chamber, discussed the grievances being faced by them due to high duties and taxes, which escalated the cost of imported dry milk by almost 55 percent.

Muffasar Malik informed that the import of dry milk powder is subjected to 20 percent duty, 25 regulatory duty, 1 percent additional custom duty, 6 percent income tax and other expenditures which have to be brought down.

He stressed that the unjust Regulatory Duty on this product must be completely withdrawn as the fresh milk currently being produced in the country simply cannot cater to the overall demand for milk and its allied products, leaving no other choice but to go for importing dry milk from reliable foreign manufacturers.

He hoped that the decision makers in Islamabad, particularly at the Federal Board of Revenue, instead of paying attention to any kind of propaganda in this connection, would take steps to provide relief to concerned importers who are doing an excellent job by striving really hard to ensure smooth supply of this essential commodity in the Pakistani markets and are also contributing significant amount of revenue to the national exchequer.