KARACHI - Pakistan Tinplate Merchants Association has urged the government to withdraw anti-dumping duty on electrolytic tin plate as no dumping of tinplate was carried and the import have gone down drastically.

The amount of the said tinplate imported is as low as 15,000-20,000 metric ton per year as compared 80,000-100,000 metric ton per year in 1999.

The association, in a letter written to National Tariff Commission of Pakistan, said that 12 per cent to 40 per cent anti-dumping duty on the importers of tin plate secondary quality is totally unrealistic and hard to understand.

It is said that since 16th of July 2009, all imported tin plate secondary quality is going to the bonded warehouses rather than coming to the market thus causing a loss to the government as no taxes are being paid because the importers are not coming in the market, this is also causing heavy losses to the importers.

The Association claimed that the repercussion of the decision taken by the NTC regarding the anti-dumping duty would be devastating for Pakistan in the light of the exports of our country to the countries which are targeted by NTC in their duties.

These countries are huge buyers of our textile and other products and they will seriously be offended by the decision of increasing duties by the NTC, which will cause chaos and they will be thinking on the lines of imposing the same sort of duties for Pakistan, it added.

The physical example of which is that NTC imposed anti-dumping duty on tin plate on South Africa the result of such irrational decision made by NTC South Africa imposed heavy duties on Pakistan in the field of textile causing a huge loss of billion of dollars to country till date.

The Association urged the government to withdraw the anti-dumping duty.