The Pakistani government is planning to increase regulatory import duties to curb imports and pressure from foreign exchange reserves. The sharp depreciation of the Pakistani rupee is among the reasons for the revision of regulatory import duties. The Pakistani rupee fell to $1 = PKR 195.74 on Tuesday this week.
According to the government’s suggested plan, the regulatory duty on imported steel products will increase to 10 percent, while duties on imported home appliances and power generation machinery will increase up to 50 percent and 30 percent, respectively.
These measures are only being discussed for now but the details on when and how the increase in duties will be applied are expected next week, SteelOrbis understands.
In April, the State Bank of Pakistan decided to impose a 100 percent cash margin on 177 imported products including hot rolled coil and cold rolled coil amid the surge in imports, as SteelOrbis previously reported. This action also indicated that banks are not providing loans for steel imports any longer.