Mr. Nasir Khan, Vice President, The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI), has strongly condemned the inclusion of Edible Oils in the S.R.O. 1190(I)/2019 issued by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).

As a matter of principle, this SRO should have been restricted to commercial importers instead of including edible oil manufacturers. Therefore, one of the major disruptions this SRO has caused is that edible oil manufacturers have massively decreased their imports and major imports have been taken over by the commercial importers.

Mr. Nasir Khan has noted that this notification/SRO has resulted in a straight 10% increase in the cost of importing edible oils in the country. Contrarily, during the same period, India and Bangladesh have reduced the cost of importing edible oils in their countries by 10% and 4% through providing various relief measures to edible oil manufacturers.

Moreover, Mr. Nasir Khan has said that instead of providing billions of rupees to Utility Stores Corporation (USC) to sell subsidized edible oils, the federal government should facilitate edible oil manufacturers. In that manner, they will be able to cut down the edible oil prices; and, provide better and greater relief to consumers in the entire country than the USC could ever achieve. This illogical and illegal inclusion has caused more than 10% increase in edible oil prices due to hoarding by commercial importers.

FPCCI demands immediate withdrawal of inclusion of edible oil manufacturers from above-mentioned SRO to help edible oil manufacturers to avoid bankruptcy and continue to play their role in economic growth and employment generation.