ISLAMABAD – The SRO 1067(I), which stirred a lot of controversy and raiseda spat between importers and the government, has been declared null andvoid by the Federal Cabinet. The cabinet further directed Federal Board ofRevenue to clear the 7000 cars stuck at Karachi port due to a change inimport policy.
The SRO 1067 was released back in November 2017 and wasn’t welcomed by carimporters. The notification made it difficult for customers to import carsand it resulted in thousands of cars getting stranded at the Karachi port.
The primary reason behind this revised policy was to decrease theincreasing trade deficit.
One of the major factors behind this extraordinary difference betweenimport and exports is import of cars. Government basically loses billionsof rupees in foreign exchange when people import cars instead of buyingthem from the local auto-manufacturing companies. So to control this andadd more money to the treasury through taxes, government tightened theimport policy and issued the SRO 1067(I) 2017.
As per the previous SRO, money on vehicles coming under the categoriesof gifts, personal baggage, and residence transfer schemes has to bearranged by the importer. Simply put, the importer has to pay the taxes indollars and get them converted to rupees through banking channels.
Taxes were also increased across most of the vehicle categories.
This move was made to make the whole process of imports difficult and haltor at least decrease the imports. However, importers and government didn’tcome to an agreement on the policy change. The importers didn’t pay foraround 7000 vehicles and demanded that the new SRO be declared null andvoid.
The government also played its own game and temporarily relaxed the customsduty on gifts, personal baggage, and residence transfer schemes tofacilitate the ordinary citizens. The relaxation, however, was given toimports made before the issuance of SRO 1067.
The Federal Cabinet finally decided to step in and solve the matter onceand for all. The SRO 1067 has been annulled and all imports made will beprocessed under the old policy. Hopefully, it will clear the Karachi portof all the vehicles that have been stuck there for so long now.