ISLAMABAD, July 23(ABC): Finance Minister Miftah Ismail Saturday announced that the government is allowing the imports of all the items that have reached the ports by June 1 with a minor surcharge to prevent the importers from facing any losses.
Taking to Twitter, Miftah said that the shipments of many luxury items, banned by the government, have reached the ports.
“Even after the government banned certain luxury goods temporarily, many shipments of these items inadvertently came to our ports. To avoid losses to importers, the government is allowing the imports of all items that have reached our ports by June 1 with a small surcharge,” he wrote.
The finance minister said that he, along with MQM-P senior leader and Maritime Minister Faisal Subzwari are trying that the importers only have to pay “little or preferably no demurrage pr container detention charges.”
In May, the government had imposed a ban on the import of non-essential and luxury items in a bid to take the country out of the financial turmoil.
Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said that the government’s focus was to reduce imports and, therefore, it was about to introduce an export-oriented policy, which would benefit the local industry and producers.
The imports covered food items, decoration items, and luxury vehicles.