ISLAMABAD: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has stated that it cannot impose a ban on import of any item as it falls under the domain of Ministry of Commerce (MOC).
As promised to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), according to a brief the SBP provided to the Senate Finance Committee’s most recent meeting, the SBP has withdrawn its advisory related to prioritizing essential imports. As a result, banks are now free to execute all import transactions (including CBU imports) as per their risk assessment and liquidity flow available in the interbank market.
The meeting was also told that in May 2022 to manage the balance of payment situation, Ministry of Commerce (MOC) and SBP took synchronized administrative measures to curtail imports.
In this regard MOC on May 19, 2022, issued an SRO specifying 33 commodity groups Pakistan Customs tariff headings (PCT) codes as banned Items. These included mobile phones, automobiles (CBU) home appliances, and 30 other luxury item groups.
There were 49 HS codes related to automobile (CBU) which were banned by MOC.
