By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: A crashing rupee on Wednesday finally shocked the government into bringing more luxury imports under an existing ban to throttle dollar outflows and control trade deficit.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in a high-level meeting tightened the injunction on the import of non-essential items.
“The government will not let the precious foreign exchange reserves be spent on such items,” Shehbaz said.
The country is estimated to save $250-300 million a month through this ban and increased regulatory duties.
Insiders said the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) was working the premier’s orders into embargoes on imports of goods that fall in the category of non-essentials or luxurious and an SRO to this effect was likely to be issued today (Thursday).
As part of its efforts to stabilide the economy, the government would launch tough austerity measures to arrest runway deficits and stem the bleeding of its currency reserves, the meeting decided.
The ban would hit the imports of luxury vehicles and other inessential items like mobiles, cosmetics, etc.
The government also decided to bump up regulatory duty on several items to discourage their imports.
According to details, regulatory duty on imported tires is likely to be hiked by 50 percent, while on tiles it will be raised by 40 percent. These duties will also be raised on the import of machinery by 10 percent and home appliances by 50 percent.
The duty on imported mobile phones and cars above 1800cc engines might be jacked up by two-fold.
The ban would also affect imports of frozen fish, egg powder, almond in shell cover, dry coconut, gum arabic, gum copal, broomstick keels, inedible tallow, olive oil, soap and gum stock, and cocoa powder, toys, dolls, festive snow sprays, and zippers.
More banned items include diapers, sanitary towels, disposable plastic boxes, non-cellular rubber sheets, textile and textile articles, Bopp film, high impact polystyrene sheets, bathroom accessories made of plastic, hand tools , mobile accessories as well as glass protector (tempered), tableware, potato chips, olives sweet corn, first jam, instant dry yeast, soya sauce, pet food, energy drinks, chemicals, sodium, auto parts, diesel engine, motorcycle parts, air compressors, air handling units, air conditioners, cool refrigerator, other furniture included chests, cabinets, display, ring travelers, tractor parts, pistols, whalers cargo loaders, LED TVs, bicycle non geared, branded heavy motorcycle, toys, light fixture, cigars, expensive cigarettes, TFT screen, android tv box, car stereo player, mobile accessories, electric oven and laptop batteries.
Pakistan’ import bill has surged to $65.5 billion in the first ten months of this fiscal year against $44.73 billion in the previous fiscal.
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