UNISAME URGES MINCOM TO REMOVE ANOMALIES IN RAW MATERIAL IMPORTS

The Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (UNISAME) urged the ministry of commerce (MINCOM) to recognize the worthy contribution of commercial importers and appreciate their role and not discriminate and treat them at par with manufacturers.
President UNISAME Zulfikar Thaver said many commercial importers said that it is pertinent to note that import of raw materials by industrial licence holders attracts a lower import custom tariff. However if the same raw material is imported by a commercial importer the custom tariff is expensive by 6 to 9%. As a result numerous bogus industrial units have propped up and huge amount of material is being imported on non existent industrial names.
On the contrary the bonafide commercial importer is sitting idle as his import cost is high.
Our contention is that this anomaly should be removed because a raw material whether imported by industry or commercial importer is always a raw material. Instead of the industry investing huge amount on bulk imports and block their capital, this opportunity should be given to the commercial importer who will invest on the bulk amount and sell/ distribute among many industries.
Unisame experts said if we study the economic development of China, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan we will find that commercial importers and exporters both were given level playing field with manufacturers as they played an important role in giving financial support to industries by meeting their requirements of uninterrupted supplies of raw material by importing and keeping ready stocks of raw material and selling to manufacturers on credit facilities.

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