Meeting Reviews Impact of Ban on Import of Luxury Items

A top-level meeting of government officials Tuesday reviewed the overall position of imports, exports, and remittances during the last quarter (April-June) of 2021-22 and the future strategy for 2022-23. Senior officials of the Ministry of Finance told ProPakistani that the meeting, held under the chairmanship of Finance Minister Miftah Ismail, also reviewed the impact of the ban on the import of non-essential luxury items and discussed the possibility of the withdrawal of the import ban. The Commerce Ministry informed the meeting that the increase in international commodity prices, the rupee depreciation, disruption in logistics and high freight cost, import of essential food items, import of raw materials, increase in import of vaccine, and anti-smuggling measures contributed to the increase in the import bill. The decision to restrict imports was jointly taken by the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Commerce to address the balance of payments (BoP) crisis. The ban was imposed under sub-section (1) of Section 3 of the Imports and Exports (Control) Act, 1950 (XXXIX of 1950) by amending the Import Policy Order (IPO), 2022 on Ministry of Commerce SRO 598(l)/2022 of May 19, 2022. In order to safeguard the local industry, the import of raw materials, intermediate goods, and industrial equipment/ machinery required by industrial/ manufacturing concerns and foreign grant-in-aid projects were exempted. As per approval of the Cabinet, the ban was to be reviewed after two months. The meeting was attended by Secretary Finance, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman, Secretary Ministry of Commerce and Secretary Ministry of Industries and Production, Special Secretary Finance, State Bank of Pakistan Governor, and Deputy Governor.