Pakistan's government urged to drop coal import duty

The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI) has requested the government to allow duty free import of coal for the benefit of power generation and cement and other industry.
 
Syed Mazhar Ali Nasir, Senior Vice President of the FPCCI, has urged the Miftah Ismail, Advisor to Prime Minister on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs, and Federal Minister for Commerce, Muhammad Pervaiz Malik, to withdraw the five per cent import duty on coal and allow its duty-free imports to enable viable coal-based electricity generation and save the considerable investment made in coal-based power projects.
 
The FPCCI Senior Vice President argued that a serious distortion has been created in the production of electricity through imported coal mainly due to 14 per cent rise in C&F price of imported coal from US$19/t to U$103/t during the last nine months.

Moreover, recent devaluation of Pakistani rupee against the US dollar by more than 10 per cent has further eroded the competitive edge of production of electricity through imported coal and rendered the industry at the verge of collapse, he added. "Resultantly, the industry will have no option but either to shift on National Grid again exerting unbearable load on WAPDA (power utility) or to shut down the industry for economic reasons," he concluded.