It is reported that Pakistan’s customs authorities and steel importers are at loggerheads over the linkage of import trade price of flat rolled products with the London Metal Exchange.

Mr Shamoon Bakir Ali senior VP of Pakistan Iron & Steel Merchants Association said that valuation of secondary items could not be linked with London Metal Exchange as LME deals in prime items while products imported by Pakistani importers are largely secondary items that are without any specifications. He added that “Earlier minimum import trade price was fixed on particular steel items separately and the current move of customs authority will not only open doors for corruption but will also stir prices in local market.”

He said that MITP has been fixed for last 20 years and earlier low import duty on silicone sheet used only in fan industry was largely misused, as other iron and steel products which have high import duties were brought into country in the garb of silicone sheets.

On December 18th 2007, the customs’ authorities linked the minimum import trade price of iron & steel products with the London Metal Exchange for valuation of duty on iron & steel products after unilaterally raising import duties without considering the viewpoints of the importers.

It may be noted that duty on silicone sheet is only 5% while import duty on secondary items of hot rolled, cold rolled and galvanized sheets is 20%. Contrary to this the import duty on prime products is 10%.