OICCI members had a productive and interactive, nearly two hours virtual meeting with the Chairperson, National Tariff Commission (NTC), Ms. Robina Ather and Director, NTC, Mr. Muhammad Arshad, on Monday, April 19, 2021, to discuss the OICCI Duty Structure/ Tariff Rationalization Proposals for the upcoming fiscal budget 2021-2022, which were submitted to the Ministry of Commerce and NTC, on April 1, 2021.

Ms Robina Ather, was very receptive and supportive towards the OICCI proposals. More than 60 representatives of member companies joined the meeting. Each participant presented their specific sectorial proposals along with the rational to support their proposals and took full advantage of the NTC Chairperson’s presence to get a better perspective of the current tariff regime.

The Chairperson very patiently responded to all the participants. She informed the participants that NTC supports all the proposals for elimination of additional custom duty and regulatory duty on essential raw materials, which are either not locally available or in limited supply, used for local manufacturing and to remove the disparity along-with specific sectors.

While responding participants, she informed that most of the OICCI proposals are very much inline with the proposals of NTC to the MoC/ FBR and Budget team, for inclusion in the fiscal budget. The Chairperson asked for more details of some of the OICCI recommendations and promised to review for possible implementation and also requested OICCI support for an improved and effective tariff regime in the country.

The meeting concluded with both teams mutually agreeing to continue the engagement.