Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chapter of All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) has challenged the levy of cess on imported cotton in Peshawar High Court (PHC) through its lawyer Qazi Ghulam Dastgir.

In a petition filed by a few textile mills the Ministry of Textile Industry, Directorate of Cotton Cess Management and Pakistan Central Cotton Committee (PCCC) have been made respondents. The petitioners, have said that they are engaged in manufacturing and value addition of textile, yarns and allied products, having their respective manufacturing units, mills and factories at various industrial areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. They, in order to run their respective units, used cotton as raw material produced locally or imported and in addition to this all the petitioner contended that they are running their units in these adverse situation of security and terrorism, electricity short fall. The petitioners said that under Section 3 of the Cotton Cess Act, 1923, it shall be levied on all cotton exported from Pakistan or consumed in mills in Pakistan and in the said section the scope of Cotton Cess is not included. In addition to this, the petitioners took the ground that as per precedents the Cess is like an excise duty and as per law excise duty could not be charged on imported items, including any raw material.