Input Output Co-efficient Organization temporarily stops determining the drawbacks of regulatory duties on trade till the budget 2015-2016

Federal Board of Revenue of Pakistan (FBR) has sent a request to the authorities at Input Output Co-efficient Organisation (IOCO) to temporarily halt the process of determining the drawbacks of increase in regulatory duties on exports and cargo to Pakistan from other countries.

Sources said that FBR authorities has asked IOCO to stop all their processes regarding statistics about trade and exports from Pakistan until the budget announcement. FBR said that this stop on the IOCO operation has been requested because of an expected change in regulatory duties in terms of decrease or increase, in the upcoming budget. IOCO authorities said that they are concerned about the decision of the FBR which came at very wrong time, when they have already completed 50 percent work to determine the DDB ratios on exports.

It is important to mention here that the IOCO works under FBR and following the directives of the federal board of revenue, IOCO started its operations a few months ago to determine the DDB ratios. Now FBR has requested to stop everything when IOCO is half a distance away from their targets. Through an official letter, FBR has informed the IOCO to determine the new rates of DDB and sent a list of findings to the board for further proceedings.

According to the spokesperson, authorities were working on SROs 209, 210, 211 and 212 in order to find the ratios of duties on exports and imports. He said that working on the listed SROs is the major part which has already been done after months of hard work.

The authorities were concerned that for the new rates, they need to consider the FTA/PTA SROs again. Spokesperson also expected that the rates will rise in the new budget. The DDB rates have not been determined since 2009. There are several amendments expected in the concessionary regime SROs which will definitely put an impact on DDB rates.