Govt imposes surcharge to release luxury imported items

ISLAMABAD: The federal government has allowed the release of imported items that reached ports after June 30 with after imposing surcharge payment.

Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Miftah Ismail said the government has issued a Statutory Regulatory Order (SRO) to reverse the ban on imports of luxury items to meet international obligations.

The minister said the goods stuck at the ports would be gradually released with penalty surcharge of 100 percent of assessed value,

“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”, he said in his tweet.

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2) Tariff Policy Board will soon come up with new Regulatory Duty rates that will ensure that 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.

— Miftah Ismail (@MiftahIsmail) August 20, 2022

The minister said Tariff Policy Board would soon come up with new Regulatory Duty rates that would ensure that the country’s limited foreign exchange is spent on essential items and not on these items that have been unbanned. “We must live within our means”, he added.

A day earlier, the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet has also decided that ban on all non-essential and luxury items may be lifted.

The 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.

The ECC lifted the ban 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.

The ECC further recommended release held-up consignments that arrived after June 30 up to July 31, 2022 with payment of a surcharge.