SOHAIL SARFRAZ
ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has withdrawn customs duty exemption on the import of 479 items including those covered under the category of miscellaneous goods from July 1, 2025.
According to the FBR’s instructions to the Collectors of Customs, to streamline and reduce the cost of exemptions, 479 entries in part-1, part-III, and part-II of the Fifth Schedule to the Customs Act, 1969, have been deleted.
It has been taken care of to retain serial numbers in the Fifth Schedule to match previous year, or ease in data comparison and statistics.
Second, Part-VII (miscellaneous goods) of the Fifth Schedule has been omitted.
However, two entries first with the description, “live (baby/brood stock) fish and shrimp/prawns for breeding and production in commercial farms and hatcheries”, and the second with the description, “Unmanufac-tured tobacco; tobacco refuse” have been shifted to Part-II of the Fifth Schedule at Sr Nos 153 and 154.
Third, the condition for registration with erstwhile Ministry of Textile Industry (now Ministry of Commerce) under Part-IV of the Fifth Schedule has been done away with. It has been amended as “Machinery and equipment, not manufactured locally, if imported by textiles and apparel industrial units registered as manufacturers-cum-exporters under Sales Tax Act, 1990,” the FBR’s instructions added.
The existing SRO 928(I)2024 dated 30th June2024, for levy of regulatory duty (RD), has been replaced with SRO 11520(I)2025, dated 30.06.2025.
The FBR has further conveyed to the Collector of Customs that downward revision of regulatory duty (RD) has been made on 1011 PCT codes. The RD rate on 473 PCT codes has been reduced by 50 per cent and RD rate on 538 PCT codes has been reduced by 20 percent. The maximum rate of RD has been reduced from 90 per cent to 50 per cent.
The RD on 970 PCT codes has been retained at previous year rates.
The RD on plums (allocha) has been imposed at the rate of 28 per cent. This is to ensure that plums is charged RD at the rate of 28 percent irrespective of their PCT codes.
The chief collectors of appraisement and collectors of appraisement are directed to ensure that RD is correctly charged on plums, the FBR’s instructions added.
