Federal Minister of Finance, Miftah Ismail, has announced that the government has lifted the import ban.
During a press conference alongside members of the economic team, Miftah said that the government had banned the import of non-luxury items as per the direction of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
He added that the recent economic stability has prompted the government to unban essential and non-essential items. IMF will have a board meeting on August 29 to discuss Pakistan’s request for an initial loan worth R.s $1.17 billion, Miftah informed.
He stated that the import ban allowed the government to focus on the import of essential items only. He remarked:
When we have limited dollars and we have to feed a huge population, our priority automatically becomes [the nation]. We had to choose between importing cars and wheat — that’s why we imposed a ban [on non-essential items].
CKD Imports
The import ban arguably had the worst impact on the car industry. The non-approval of the letter of credit (LC) had prompted car companies to observe production cuts as the inventory had been running dry.
Fortunately, since the Completely Knocked Down (CKD) kits are not considered luxury items, their import will resume without any caveats. However, its positive impact on the sales figures will likely manifest after a few months.
it would make much more sense to lift ban on raw materials needed to get the export based industries moving… but instead we get this.