Pakistan lowers scrap sales tax

The government of Pakistan has lowered the sale tax rate on ferrous scrap among recent revisions to its tax code.

In a list of tax code amendments posted Sept. 22 by the Karachi, Pakistan-based Business Recorder website, importers will now pay a 14 percent tax on “re-meltable scrap if imported by steel melters.”

The previous tax rate was 17 percent, and media reports indicate some steelmakers and users had been asking the government to lower it to 5 percent.

The move to 14 percent is listed as an incentive to the steel sector, along with a reduced sales tax on steel products of 0.25 percent “for distributors, retailers etc.” in the steel sector.

In the first half of 2021, the United States shipped 311,000 metric tons of ferrous scrap to Pakistan, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures published by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). That placed Pakistan behind its neighbor India (332,000 metric tons) and Bangladesh (622,000 metric tons), which also is on the Indian subcontinent.