巴基斯坦内阁委员会允许免税进口棉花

Pakistani cabinet committee allows duty-free cotton import
The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Pakistani cabinet recently ordered immediate clearance of about Rs 36 billion refund claims of exporters and allowed tax and duty-free import ofcotton. The ECC approved withdrawal of customs duty, additional customs duty and sales tax on import of cotton from February 1 to June 30 this year.
The step is reportedly aimed at ensuring sufficient cotton supply for thetextileindustry, especially the export segment.
The decisions were taken at an ECC meeting presided over by finance minister Asad Umar.
The decision was based on the plea that Pakistan had been a net cotton importer since 2001. As domestic cotton is of short-to-mediumstaplelength, textile manufacturers import long and extra long staple cotton for finer yarn counts for manufacturing value-added products.
Cotton at present is subject to 3 per cent customs duty, 2 per cent additional customs duty and 5 per cent sales tax.
The ECC also approved regulatory amendments in the Export Policy Order 2016 and Import Policy Order 2016 as proposed by the commerce division.
These will be submitted for consideration to the cabinet.
译文如下：
巴基斯坦内阁委员会允许免税进口棉花
巴基斯坦内阁的经济协调委员会(ECC)最近下令立即对出口商提出的大约360亿卢比的退税要求进行清算，并允许免税进口棉花。今年2月1日至6月30日，该国海关批准对进口棉花免征关税、附加关税和销售税。
据报道，这一步骤的目的是确保纺织工业，特别是出口部门有足够的棉花供应。
这些决定是在由财政部长阿萨德·乌马尔主持的ECC会议上作出的。
这一决定是基于巴基斯坦自2001年以来一直是棉花净进口国的请求做出的。由于国内棉纱为短至中绒棉，而纺织企业则需要进口长绒棉和超长绒棉用于生产高附加值产品。
目前，棉花须缴付3%的关税、2%的额外关税和5%的销售税。
ECC还批准了商务部提出的《2016年出口政策订单》和《2016年进口政策订单》的监管修订。
这些将提交内阁考虑。