By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABA: The government on Thursday extended the utilization period under the Export Facilitation Scheme to 18 months from nine, a change officials say will lower costs for shippers and give particular relief to small and medium-sized enterprises.
Minister of State for Finance Bilal Azhar Kayani announced the revision in a post on X. The scheme allows exporters to import inputs without paying duty or import-stage taxes, provided the materials are used in production within the stipulated period. “This essentially means that exporters can now avail zero duty and import stage taxes for imported inputs provided that they are used within 18 months (previously this period was 9 months),” Kayani said. “The longer utilisation period will help reduce the cost for our exporters and will particularly help our SME exporters.”
The government will also consider granting an additional six-month extension on a case-by-case basis, with decisions made by a dedicated committee, Kayani said. To guard against misuse, users will be required to submit a reconciliation statement every six months. Kayani credited a technical committee for the policy shift, thanking officials from the Federal Board of Revenue and the Ministry of Commerce as well as private-sector representatives who worked alongside him: Fawad Anwar of PTC, Khurram Mukhtar of PTEA, and Kamran Arshad of APTMA. The group’s recommendations were approved by the prime minister. “The committee studied and considered historical EFS data and utilisation period benchmarks of regional peers before arriving at its unanimous recommendations,” he said.
Before the extension, 7,932 goods declarations filed by EFS users for input imports had already exceeded the old nine-month limit. All of those declarations are now eligible once again for duty-free treatment and export under the scheme, Kayani said. Two further improvements were introduced at the same time. First, security deposits will now be automatically replenished to the extent of the value of goods that have been consumed and exported, eliminating the need for exporters to apply manually and saving administrative time. Second, EFS users have been granted the right to appeal orders issued by the regulatory collector directly to the chief collector. The changes form part of a broader effort to streamline export procedures and improve cash-flow conditions for manufacturers who rely on imported raw materials.
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