Fresh duties on the cards to curb luxury imports
With a gap of less than six months, the caretaker government is again working on imposing prohibitive regulatory duties on a longer list of luxury and non-essential import items as part of a broader strategy aimed at curbing the rapid depletion of the country’s scarce foreign exchange reserves. Simultaneously, the administration is also actively working to revive regionally competitive gas and electricity rates for five export-oriented sectors, with possible modifications that could be acceptable to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), along with other facilitations to support foreign exchange inflows through exports. Sources told Dawn these proposals have broadly been discussed at the recent meetings of the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), a newly formed decision-making body comprised of both civilian and military leadership. Leading the charge in this initiative is Caretaker Commerce Minister Gohar Ejaz, the patron-in-chief of the all-influential All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma). Notably, Pakistan’s import portfolio, which totalled $55 billion last year, saw $17bn allocated to oil imports. The food sector also constituted a substantial chunk, with $9bn, including $3.6bn in palm oil imports. Textile imports accounted for around $3.7bn, including $1.7bn in raw cotton imports.