Miftah Ismail, the finance minister, made a speech on imported commodities a few days ago. He remarked something to the effect that the government would raise the price of these things to the point where purchasing them would be nearly impossible.
It appears that he wasn’t lying after all.
The regulatory charge on a variety of imported items, including cars, has been dramatically increased by the government by revising SRO 966(I)/2022, which was issued on June 30, 2022. Without a doubt, this will cause their prices to rise enormously.
Let’s take a look at the old and new regulatory duties on new and used imported cars.
Simply put, if you were paying a RD of 15% on an imported car, now you will be paying 100% RD on the same, which makes a percentage increase of 566%.
Imported Cars in Pakistan
Here are some of them.
| Toyota | Honda | Suzuki | KIA | Hyundai | MG |
| Camry | Accord | Jimny | Carnival GLS | Staria | HS |
| Prius S | CR-V | APV | Carnival Executive | Santa Fe | HS PHEV |
| Rush G AT/MT | IONIQ | ZS | |||
| Corolla Cross | ZS EV |
Why Does The Government Want to Increase the Prices of CBUs?
Increasing RD on CBUs seems like an afterthought on the government’s part. It never wanted to allow their import in the first place and therefore a ban was imposed on the import of CBUs. Later, as the loan approval talks progressed with the IMF, the government came under pressure from the Fund to lift this ban. Pakistan after all is a signatory to the WTO and cannot impose a blanket ban on the import of goods.
Now that the government has lifted the ban under pressure, it still wants to discourage the import of CBUs, reason being it is short of US Dollars and wants to stop the Dollar flight. So, what does it do? It makes their import super expensive.
Interestingly, the RD on the import of new SUVs 4✕4 like Toyota Land Cruiser is increased by only 10%. While, the RD on the import of new minivans like Suzuki Every has been increased by a whopping 85%.
Perhaps, when Miftah Ismail said the government will make CBUs so expensive that it will be next to impossible to buy them, he meant it for the middle classes.
Let us know what you think about the recent RD hike in the comment section below.
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