Islamabad: A Statutory Regulatory Order (SRO) issued by Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Monday has raised regulatory duties on over 731 imported items.
These new regulatory duties on items range from 10pc to 50pc, the SRO revealed.
This is part of the government’s strategy to curb imports, which is twice the number of exports and has contributed to the country’s widening current account deficit (CAD).
Profit had reported earlier this month that the government was initiating a plan to slap regulatory duties on import of luxury items and mobile phones, which would help restrict imports.
In March, the government had passed measures to reduce the imports of non-essential items like mobile phones, vehicles, cigarettes by demanding 100pc of the cash upfront from importers, but it didn’t restrict imports in any given manner.
The issuance of this SRO revealed that several items including confectionary, toiletries, fruits, electronic items all the way up to cars will be impacted by the slapping of regulatory duties, which would make these items more expensive and hence discourage their imports.
A link has been shared below detailing items that have been slapped with regulatory duties under this new SRO issued by FBR on Monday:
