On Friday, March 13, Pakistan's Customs Valuation announced that it is cutting the Import Trade Price (ITP) of secondary steel products by 24 percent to 30 percent due to the price downturn in the global market.
Steel importers were demanding a cut in the ITP of secondary flat steel products due to the decrease in the prices. Customs cut the ITP of three flat rolled products by 24 percent to 30 percent; however, the reduction is not still in line with the international market and is still higher than the ITP of prime quality steel. The new ITP of secondary flat rolled steel products is unrealistic and still about $50/mt to $200/mt higher than the ITP of prime quality steel products and the actual value of secondary flat products.
In addition, customs has also fixed two different types of ITPs for the period November to December and January to February imports, which would create more problems for imports as well as customs authorities for examination purposes.
According to steel importers, the unrealistic fixing of the ITP values of steel flat product for duty purposes would cause a loss of billions of rupees to the government's funds.