Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has demanded in the budget proposals of financial year 2016-17 that the local manufacturers should be encouraged to invest in China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Projects.
According to a press release issued on Saturday, LCCI President Sheikh Muhammad Arshad, Senior Vice President Almas Hyder and Vice President Nasir Saeed said that projects like CPEC had the capacity to stimulate the local economy by increasing the demand for locally-manufactured goods.
Such increase in demand will not only allow full utilisation of the existing manufacturing potential, but will also encourage the manufacturers to increase their capacity. It will generate much needed employment opportunities, and will also contribute a sizeable amount of revenue to the national exchequer, the LCCI said.
“It withdrew the concessionary custom duties from raw materials for the industry covered under SRO 565. In most of the cases, import duty on raw materials was increased from 10 per cent to 20 per cent, which resulted in higher raw material costs for the local manufacturers,” they elaborated.
LCCI advised the government to declare zero per cent custom duty (serial no 12 of Fifth Schedule) and sales tax (serial no 7 of Table 3 Sixth Schedule) on the import of machinery, equipment and spare parts.
