Asif Iqbal Paracha
CHAIRMAN

PAKISTAN SOAP MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION
2024-2026

AlhamduLillah! Through this Website I’m availing the opportunity to express my views regarding the potential of Pakistan’s Soap Industry.

For sure, Soap is such an essential item that our day starts and ends with the use of Soaps. Yet, we see the decline of Pakistan’s Soaps & Detergents industry. This decline can be attributed mainly due to the current economic conditions of the country that has increased the cost of production beyond proportion and adversely affected sales.

We have shown our concern over the continued increase in energy costs. At this rate, the industry is rapidly heading towards closure which will ultimately result in amplifying the unemployment rate & further diminish Pakistan’s already limited export capabilities. We also urged the government to explore and provide affordable energy alternatives for the soap industry and stressed that such measures were crucial for ensuring the competitiveness of Pakistani Soaps & Detergents products in the global market.

We are trying to adopt various measures to resolve the issues that our members are facing. In this regard, we shall contact various high officials of government to protect the interests of our industry, indicating that there will be an adverse and drastic impact of levying additional custom duty on raw materials of Soaps & Detergents industry. This will have a direct impact on poor masses of the country, who are already facing hardship due to overall cost inflation on various daily consumables.

These soaring cost increases due to rising Sea Freights and associated conversion cost, especially on Linear Alkyl Benzene (LAB) under the H.S. Code 3817.0000, beside other zero rated items, will now make Detergent powder out of reach of poor consumers. The duty structures of raw materials that are not produced in the country and are being used in manufacturing of Soaps and Detergents must be reformed and lowered. Failure to do this will put the burden of additional custom duty on raw materials imported for locally manufactured Soaps and Detergents on the common man, making end products more costly.

I would also like to thank all fellow members of the Managing Committee of 2024-2026 for contributing their business expertise and industry knowledge with us. We would also like to acknowledge the team’s efforts for suggesting health and hygiene business strategies in a year as turbulent a year as this one. Although uncertainty persists in our industry, we feel confident that our industrialists will make a strong comeback in the coming years.