Footwear raw material poser

Anjana Samarasinghe

DUTY CHARGES: The Association for Products and Importation of Raw Materials in the footwear sector (APIRMFS) urges a separate BTN No. for imported footwear raw material.

The Chairman APIRMFS, Mahendra Perera said that there is a high duty imposed on imported shoes to uplift the local footwear industry. But the imported shoes and the imported raw materials for the local footwear industry are categorised under the same BTN No.

Since imported shoes and raw materials are under the same BTN raw material importers to need to pay identical Customs duties.

This has resulted in high prices for raw materials in the local market. It has also made a huge impact on the local footwear industry with high production costs, Perera said.

At the Customs footwear raw materials enter the RTF Department and Valuation Department which results in a high amount of taxes.

When goods enter RTF there will be a valuation of the goods and there will be another valuation in the Valuation Department, which will be additional costs, he said.

Importers also need to spend five to six days to clear their containers from the Customs, which will impose additional charges on them.

"If we could minimize the clearing period to a maximum of two days it will prevent the additional costs that we need to bear at the Customs.

It is important to introduce a fixed value at the Customs for raw materials, according to the country in which that material had been produced. This is specially so for footwear sales, he added.

The Association met Minister of Industrial Development Kumara Welgama and discussed their problems recently.

The Ministry expects to organise a meeting with the Director General of Sri Lanka Customs and the Association to find solutions to these issues this week.

APIRMFS which is under Sri Lanka Footwear Association also proposed that footwear materials should be included in the SAFTA.

Sri Lanka imports footwear raw materials from India and it is important to include these items for SAFTA to boost the industry, Perera said.

Sri Lanka imports footwear raw materials from India, China, Taiwan and Thailand. There are 25 to 30 large-scale suppliers of footwear raw materials to Sri Lanka.