Chairman, Export Committee Pakistan Tanners Association (NZ), Mr. Anjum Zafar has said in a press statement that very huge amounts of Duty Drawback Claims of the member exporters are stuck-up with the Customs Collectorate against export shipments of leather made through Lahore Airport and Customs (Preventive) Lahore has not been cleared so far despite several meetings with Collector concerned.

He informed that posting of Chief Accounts Officer in Model Customs Collectorate (Preventive) Lahore remained havoc for more than six months. Non-availability of cheque signing authority kept the leather exporters away from their refund amount meanwhile, that has now piled up to PKR 450 million.

Association’s member exporters feel it very hard to continue their business smoothly in the wake of a host of challenges marked by power and gas crisis, law and order concerns, rising prices of POL etc.

Upcoming Eid-al-Adha necessitates smooth supply of funds for exporters of leather, Anjum added. He warned the masses that if leather tanners could not receive refund payments, they would not be able to buy stocks of raw of hides/skins this Eid which this may result in loss of precious raw stocks and loss to farmers, butchers and the whole supply chain of leather industry.

Mr. Anjum Zafar invited attention of government that a lot of people have business stakes in raw stocks on Eid that will be totally dependent on tanners’ interest in buying these stocks to prepare leather. Without ample funds, leather industry would fail to operate normally and whole market mechanism would be disturbed if Customs fails to clear-off heavy payments.

Mr. Anjum Chairman Export Subcommittee, appealed to the Chairman, FBR to take notice of this critical situation and direct the authorities concerned to settle all the pending claims of Duty Drawback leather tanning industries expeditiously to get them rid of liquidity crunch otherwise it will not be possible to operate export business without timely and smooth refund payments.