According to reports, the federal government is considering amending the Import Policy Order to partially permit the import of smartphones given that the entire prohibition is costing the national reserve a significant amount of money.
According to the sources, the Cabinet Secretariat, the Ministry for Industries and Production, and Customs have proposed lifting the prohibition on the import of cell phones because it earns millions of rupees in taxes.
A notification in this respect is anticipated to be released during the current week, as per the sources.
As part of an emergency economic strategy on May 19, the government prohibited the import of 38 non-essential luxury items, including mobile phones, in an effort to balance the declining foreign exchange reserves and mounting import bill.
SRO 598 of 2022, issued by the Commerce Ministry, amended the Import Policy Order. The SRO listed 33 different categories of prohibited commodities using 800 PCT (Pakistan Customs Tariff Headings) headings.
In the first 11 months (July to May) of 2021–2022, Pakistan imported mobile phones worth $1.946 billion, an increase of 4.62%, which brought in a staggering amount of money for the state coffers.
Additionally, the federal government is likely to ease the import prohibition on shipments that had already arrived at Karachi port prior to that decision.
During a meeting with a high-level group of business owners from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Federal Minister for Commerce Syed Naveed Qamar also provided a guarantee in this regard.
Sector analysts claim that the government is thinking about amending the SRO because a total prohibition hurts tax collections and is also detrimental to local auto and mobile assembly. The government will probably lift the restriction, albeit with significant tax increases.