Govt okays conditional export of flour

Import of used cars with 2,000-km mileage also approved

ISLAMABAD:

 

The federal government has allowed the export of flour with the condition that it should be produced from imported wheat, it emerged on Thursday.

A notification issued by the commerce ministry read that Export Policy Order 2022 had been amended for this purpose.
Commerce ministry sources said there were satisfactory and abundant reserves of wheat in the country.
This year, the wheat cultivation has exceeded the set target by 1.8%.

The sources added that this year’s wheat production target of 32.1 million tonnes would be achieved.
In recent days, the imported wheat market crashed after the flour mills of Punjab reduced their purchase by 90% as the grain grown in Sindh became cheaper.

The price of imported wheat went down by Rs160 and the domestic produce by Rs400 per maund.
Farmers' organisations demanded that the federal government should not extend for the third time the deadline of March 31 for ships arriving with imported wheat.

They said the lenience would cause irreparable loss to the farmers as the indigenous wheat had started coming to the market.

The government has also permitted the import of used cars with a mileage of 2,000 kilometres.

The commerce ministry has amended the Import Policy 2022 to facilitate this process. The earlier policy only allowed the import of used car with a mileage of 500 kilometres.

A notification issued by the commerce ministry read that under the amended import policy, cars with a mileage of up to 2,000 kilometres would be considered "new".

According to sources, several importers had repeatedly approached the commerce ministry requesting a one-time waiver of extra mileage on ‘new’ vehicles.

Any consignment of imported vehicle driven more than 500 kilometres was stopped by the Customs.
However, the import of used vehicles is likely to increase with the relaxation of this policy. However, it would also further dent the interests of the local manufacturers.

In November last year, Indus Motor Company (IMC) CEO Ali Asghar Jamali had maintained that over 6,500 used cars were imported during FY 2022-23. He added that more than 7,500 units had already been imported in the first three months of FY 2023-24.

The IMC CEO expressed his concern that these used car imports undermined the progress achieved through the localisation by the domestic auto industry.
He continued that they also hindered the potential for further localisation in Pakistan.