KARACHI: The Input Output Co-efficient Organization (IOCO) has almost completed its working regarding the determination of new duty draw back rates on import and exports.
Sources informed Customs Today that the IOCO has completed its 90 percent working in determining the duty draw back rates and remaining exercise would be completed within ten days.
The sources further disclosed that the IOCO authorities, after completing the entire exercise in this regard, would forward report to the Director IOCO Shahnaz Maqbool and the Director IOCO would forward the final duty draw back list to the officials concerned of the Federal Board of Revenue in July 2015.
It is pertinent to mention here that the survey process of IOCO under SRO 565 and SRO 575 was stopped due to ongoing exercise by the authorities concerned on completion of duty draw back rates.
The authorities concerned of IOCO were stopped their survey process under SRO 565 and SRO 575, as the FBR authorities asked the IOCO officers and officials to finalize the process of determining the duty draw back rates before the end of fiscal year 2014-15.
The sources further informed this scribe that the temporary stoppage of survey process was affected the imports and exports as the importers and exporters could not carried out their business without determination of wastage by the authorities concerned of IOCO, which they determined during survey of the particular manufacturing unit.
It may also be mentioned here that the FBR authorities were issued directives to the authorities concerned of IOCO to ensure the completion of duty draw back rates determination before ending of fiscal year 2014-15.
It may also be mentioned here that the FBR authorities concerned in the month of April-2015 asked the authorities concerned of IOCO to stop the process of finalizing DDB rates, as those rates would be changed after announcement of budget for the fiscal year 2015-16. However, the FBR authorities later decided to finalize the process of determining the DDB rates.
It is pertinent to mention here that the FBR authorities concerned in the month of March-2015 directed the authorities concerned of IOCO to determine the new “Duty Draw Back” (DDB) rates in cases of imports and exports.
In the month of March, the FBR authorities concerned through a letter has asked the IOCO authorities to determine the new rates of duty draw back and send to the FBR authorities for further proceedings.
It may be mentioned here that the duty draw back rates were last determined in the year 2009 and after that during the last six years, no attention yet to be paid in this matter.
The sources further disclosed that the IOCO authorities concerned are working on SROs 209,210,211 and 212 in order to settle new duty draw back rates on imports and exports, adding that over 150 schedules are existed in aforementioned SROs and the entire exercise needs an adequate time to complete the entire process regarding determining the duty draw back rates.
The sources further said that the IOCO authorities concerned are also considering the FTA/PTA SROs in order to determine new duty draw back rates, as high duty draw back rates have been witnessed in some imports and exports cases with the difference of foreign exchange rates since the year 2009.
“The IOCO authorities concerned after finalizing the duty draw back cases in concessionary regime SROs will send the report to FBR for issuance of notification pertaining to the new duty draw back rates”, sources added.
It may be mentioned here that the decision regarding the determination of new rates of duty draw back was taken in the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) meeting of the Cabinet members, held recently in Islamabad.
Meanwhile, the exporters and trade bodies have demanded of the authorities concerned of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to increase the rate of duty draw back on exports due to significant increase in US dollar exchange rate since 2009.
The sources informed Customs Today that the authorities concerned of FBR have given the task to the Input Output Co-efficient Organization (IOCO) in order to evaluate the rates of duty draw back during the last five years i.e.2009 to 2014.
The exporters and trade bodies were of the view that they have been experiencing billions of rupees loss in share of rebate, as the exporters are getting re-payment after exporting the goods as per the duty draw back structure followed in the year 2009.
“The dollar rates in the year 2009 was under Rs 100 and it was stood at Rs 85 to Rs 87 against US$1, however; the current rate of the US dollar is above Rs 100 which is certainly increase the duty draw back amount after export”, they added.
The items in the duty draw back structure may include several items which would be decided by the authorities concerned.
The IOCO sources revealed that the evaluation work would be completed by the end of this current year i.e.2014 and after that increase in duty draw back rates are expected by the advent of the next year.