Islamabad August 20 2022: To meet with international obligations, the government has issued an SRO to reverse the ban on imports of luxury items says Finance Minister.
“To meet with our international obligations, the government has issued an SRO to reverse the ban on imports of luxury items. The goods stuck at the ports will gradually be released with penalty surcharge of up to 100% of assessed value.” says Pakistan’s Finance Minister Miftah Ismail.
He added, “Tariff Policy Board will soon come up with new Regulatory Duty rates that will ensure that our limited foreign exchange is spent on essential items and not on these items that we have unbanned. We must live within our means.”
Yesterday, on 19th August 2022, the ECC lifted the ban on luxury items owing to serious concerns raised by trading partners on the imposition of ban and considering the fact that the ban has impacted supply chains and domestic retail industry, for which Ministry of Commerce had presented a summary before the committee.
It was submitted that a ban was imposed on import of about 33 classes/categories of goods covering more than 860 products/tariff lines on May 19, 2022.
