Staff Reporter
Islamabad
Pakistan Association of Large Steel Producers has appealed to the government that any reduction in tariffs on locally manufactured finished or semi-finished steel products under the garb of Tariff Rationalization will result in de-industrialization and closure of steel industry as well as massive unemployment in the country.
Government must realize that reducing tariffs on domestically manufactured items without providing a globally competitive business environment will surely lead to de-industrialization.
The domestic steel industry has invested billions in recent years to bring in new capacity and world-class technology to improve efficiencies and competitiveness.
Now to support domestic industry govt. needs to do its part to reduce the cost of doing business, enable fair competition, fix tariff anomalies, and facilitate core industry issues before considering tariff rationalization.
The local industry shows its dissent with the proposal submitted by the NTC earlier this year to the Tariff Policy Board for the long steel sector. ‘It is baffling that the NTC had submitted a tariff proposal to virtually de-industrialize the steel sector.
