Sources told Business Recorder on Wednesday that the issue was discussed in a recent meeting on list of items to be allowed for import from India, which was attended by representatives of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), Engineering Development Board (EDB), Pakistan Steel, Central Board of Revenue (CBR), Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Industries and Production.
Initially, a list of 300 items has been circulated to all stakeholders for examination. These items would be included in the Appendix-G of the Import Policy Order after incorporating viewpoints of all stakeholders.
During the meeting, Pakistan Steel rep had opined that the proposed list contained all those items which are being produced by the mill. Inclusion of these items in the list would badly affect the performance of the mill. In case the government gives permission to import iron and steel products from India, there is possibility of dumping of Indian products in the country, which would create monopoly of Indian importers.
According to sources, it was pointed out that China has annual capacity of manufacturing 3 billion tons steel, while Pakistan has one million tons capacity on annual basis. China's one-day production of steel is equivalent to Pakistan's one-year production. The question arises why protection is being given to the local industry at the cost of consumer interest.
FPCCI requested the Ministry of Commerce to give 6 weeks time to the Federation for obtaining viewpoints of chambers of commerce and industry on the proposed list. It was agreed to obtain the viewpoint of FPCCI by the end of December 2005. FPCCI said that it was important to obtain viewpoints of stakeholders on the items, which directly relate to the domestic industries.
It was also decided that EDB would examine the engineering related items and viewpoint would be submitted in the next meeting to be held in January 2006.
The CBR informed the meeting that the tax official were ready to accept the viewpoints of all stakeholders including chambers of commerce and industry. While the Commerce Ministry is the regulatory authority of import/export as Import Policy Order is the set of regulations prepared keeping in view of the stakeholders comments.
Following are the names of items to be included in the Import Policy Order for allowing import from India. The list includes Unani ayurvedic medicines, printing and allied machinery, diesel and other petroleum products, detergent powders, detergent bars, eggs, zippers, tobacco and tobacco products, skimmed milk powder, whole milk powder, barley malt, non-edible oil, maize starch, liquid glucose, nno-dairy creamer, chewing gum, malt extract powder, cigarettes, sodium formate, nail polish, medicaments, perfumes, nail polish, creams, adhesive based on rubber, shampoos, lubricating oil preparation, lamination BOPP films, camel back strips, rubber hot water bottles, paper and paperboard, industrial adhesive, insecticides, fungicides, bicycles tyres and tubes, special paper, photocopier, carbon paper, packing wrapper, polyester texturised yarn, other types of yarn, woven fabrics, PU/PVC coated fabrics, polyester staple fiber, yarns made of polyester staple fiber, woven fabrics, soles for shoes, sanitary ware, bicycle mirrors, glass wool, flat-rolled products of iron or non-alloy steel, hardened and tempered steel strips, bars and rods of stainless steel, angles, shapes and sections of stainless steel, tinplate containers and parts thereof, cans which are to be closed by soldering of crimpling, gas cylinders, cryogenic tank, vitrified tiles whether polished or not, animal shoes nails, sandwich bottom stainless steel pressure cookers, aluminium bars rods and profiles, aluminium structure and parts thereof, pressure cookers, aluminium pressure cookers, non-stick cookware, hand tools, band saw blades, circular saw blades, builders hardware, staple in strips, stopper, caps and lids, aluminium caps, seal capsules, boilers, piston rings, piston assemblers, compressors used in refrigerating equipment, air and gas compressors for industrial use, chillers and heat pump, waste water treatment plant, filter for shower system, air pollution control system, heat scaling machine, weighing machines, conveyers, shower system, spin draw wind machine, CNC turning machines, plastic extrusion plant and machinery, room coolers, thermic fluid heaters, static converter for telecom apparatus, juicer mixture/blender, electric iron, sandwich toasters, voice and data switches, microphones, magnetic tape recorder, radios, VSAT terminals, color television, projection TV, video projectors, wires and cables, plastic insulated cables and flexes, telecommunication cables, automatic mechanical car parking system and spares, stitching machines, digital loop carrier system, transmission equipment, high bit rate digital subscriber lines, ISDN terminals and adapters, complete bicycles, chains, blood bags, oxygen masks, cricket balls, cricket bats, empty hard gelatin capsules, air separation plants and acetylene plant.