LAHORE: The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) on Wednesday called for immediate revision of SRO1125(I)/2011, stressing that it is hitting registered suppliers of packaging material hard.

After a meeting with representatives of All Pakistan Carton Manufacturers Association and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), LCCI President Sheikh Muhammad Arshad said af ter the SRO, registered suppliers are facing difficulty as manufacturers have started making their purchases from unregistered suppliers or from other countries.

He said most of the packaging industries are supplying packing material to exporters and are duly registeredfor sales tax. Denial of input tax/refund to exporters would encourage them to make purchases from un-registered persons, he stressed.

Only one per cent tax was required to be withheld instead of making purchases from the registered manufacturers/suppliers who would charge sales tax at 17pc, he added.

He cautioned the problem would be aggravated in view of the fact that most of the large exporters and export houses would obtain DTRE for import or local purchase of various items including packing material.

The LCCI office-bearer said exporters would import packing material free of customs duty and sales tax under the said scheme and there would be no need for them to make purchases from registered local suppliers.