The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) will be crediting duty drawbacks directly into the bank accounts of the exporters, effective from the 1st of September 2020.
This was announced by the Advisor to Prime Minister on Trade Abdul Razak Dawood in a series of tweets:
Exporters have always been wanting that their refunds go directly into their accounts from the SBP. I am pleased to announce that effective from 1st of September 2020, the SBP will be crediting the Duty Drawbacks directly into the bank accounts of the exporters. I am grateful to SBP and Pakistan Customs for establishing this system of direct transfer of Duty Drawback, without any human involvement on the initiative of Ministry of Commerce.
The previous government had announced in STPF 2015-18 that the exporters will get duty drawbacks from SBP directly after submission of required documents and certificates of exported consignments.
Commerce Advisor also appreciated the SBP and Customs for establishing a system of direct transfer of duty drawback without human involvement on the initiatives of the Commerce Ministry.
It is to be noted that the STPF 2020-25 which is yet to be approved by the cabinet, envisages incentivizing 26 non-traditional sectors to boost exports by shifting powers of clearing claims of duty drawbacks, local taxes and levies (DLTL) refunds to SBP so that exporters get their claims as they submit their Goods Declaration (GDs).
The Commerce Ministry had proposed to shift duty drawback and DLTL to SBP from the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) which always delayed refunds due to which exporters faced capital issues.
