Karachi—The imposition of undue anti-dumping duties on import of Electrolytic Tin Plates has created a jumble among local trade and industry. This action by National Tariff Commission is regarded as totally out of concept and resulting in serious repercussions on the country’s economy and exports.

There is a physical example that NTC imposed anti-dumping duty on Tin Plate of South Africa, in the result of which South Africa imposed heavy duties on Pakistan in the field of textile causing a huge loss of billion of dollars to Pakistan till date.

According to informed sources NTC imposed 12 percent and 40 percent anti-dumping duty on imports of Tin Plates Secondary Quality in July this year. Soon after that all the imported Tin Plate Secondary Quality was going to Bonded Warehouses rather than coming into the market thus causing loss to the government as well as importers as no taxes are being paid because the imports were not coming in the market. It has created shortage in the market, which caused monopoly of a lone seller M/s Siddiqsons who were selling their products at very high prices. This is a matter of concern for the government because the rates of manufactured cans have increased alarmingly that has increased the market price and is now going out of control.

Importers said the 12% and 40% anti-dumping duties were totally unrealistic and hard to understand as how the NTC had implied the duties for different countries. They said that M/s Siddiqsons Tin Plate Limited Karachi had totally mislead the National Tariff Commission by submitting application against importers of Electrolytic Tin Plate Secondary Quality that they were involved in dumping of the said Tin Plate.

According to importers there was no dumping carried out as the imports had gone down drastically and the said tin plate being imported is as low as 15,000 to 20,000 metric ton per year compared to 80,000 to 100,000 metric ton per year in 1999 before M/s Siddiqsons established their factory. On the other hand the imports by M/s Siddiqsons were increased up to 80,000 to 85,000 metric ton per year which were earning huge profits but in return they did not pay a single rupee on account of Sales Tax, Income Tax, Custom Duty and other taxes for the last 8-9 years incurring huge losses to government of Pakistan.

Contrary to this, importers were paying about Rs37,000/- per metric ton on account of Sales Tax, Custom Duty, Income Tax and other taxes. Another interesting fact was that M/s Siddiqsons Tin Plate Ltd., were not the manufacturers but they were the processors of Tin Plate i.e., they coat Tin Mill Black Plate (TMBP) Primary quality, which was totally different class to what was being imported by other parties. It was called Secondary Quality Tin Plate. Hence, the allegations of dumping leveled by Siddiqsons against general importers were totally false and baseless.

According to analysts the repercussions of the decision taken by NTC regarding anti-dumping duty will be devastating for Pakistan with reference to exports of our country to the countries, which were targeted by NTC in their duties. These countries are big buyers of our textile and other products and they will be seriously offended by the decision of increasing duties by NTC, which will cause chaos and they will be thinking on the lines of imposing the same sort of duties for Pakistan in the field of textile and other products.