The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) on Tuesday urged the Pakistan government to ban the export of copper bars to protect the local copper-dependent industries.
In a letter to Federal Minister for Industries and Production Muhammad Hammad Azher, LCCI President Mian Tariq Misbah said most of the small and medium enterprises cannot directly import copper due to minimum shipment size, lack of access to the international trade network and absence of bank trade lines. They primarily depend on the copper extracted from scrap and refined by local furnaces or metal plants, he said.
However, as local copper metal plants and furnaces prefer to export copper due to export and tax benefits, it is hurting the local industry, he said. In the past, the governments had imposed a duty to discourage copper exports, but “influential furnace and metal plant owners have got the ban removed,” he alleged.
Recently, fan manufacturers in Pakistan had asked the government to impose duty on copper and aluminum exports. Last week, Pakistan PM’s Advisor on commerce and industry, Abdur Razaq Dawood had said the government has not decided to impose any regulatory duty on the export of copper and aluminium yet, adding “exporters earn us foreign exchange; we will provide them every possible facility”. Davis Index had also reported that copper ingots and aluminium ingots exporters are against export duty.