Islamabad, 16 May, 2025: An important meeting on National Tariff Policy was held at the Prime Minister’s House under the chairmanship of PM Shehbaz Sharif. The meeting decided to significantly reduce import duties to promote exports and investment.
The Prime Minister has reiterated his resolve that the government will spare no effort to achieve a strong economy, provide employment opportunities and permanently and completely eliminate inflation.
After extensive consultation with domestic and foreign economic experts, a comprehensive plan for fundamental economic reforms has been formulated.
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In continuation of his economic recovery plan, the Prime Minister has taken a historic step by approving a gradual but significant reduction in import duties (tariffs).
This move is being described as an important milestone towards achieving economic recovery that will enable export-led growth.
The decision under consideration will not only help in controlling unemployment but will also help in keeping the inflation rate under control.
Moreover, it will result in a boost in international investment, which will create new employment opportunities.
The government is striving to provide employment to the people and especially to the educated youth, with decent employment.
The Prime Minister has directed to completely eliminate additional customs duties (currently between 2% and 7%) and regulatory duties (currently between 5% and 90%) in the next four to five years.
Along with this, he has decided to limit customs duty to a maximum of 15 percent, while currently this rate can exceed 100 percent on some items.
The customs duty rates (slabs) have been limited to four, which will significantly reduce the legal complexities related to imports and provide equal opportunities to different industries.
This historic decision of the Prime Minister will open the economy to foreign investment and domestic industries will have access to raw materials, intermediate goods and capital goods easily and at low prices.
In addition, due to increased competition, local industries will become more efficient and competitive, which will help increase export earnings for the country, and thus will also help control inflation and currency depreciation.
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The Prime Minister carefully examined all aspects of this proposal, the reduction in tariffs will not only stabilize the current account deficit but will also be helpful in obtaining more revenue from customs duty.
In the same meeting, the Prime Minister has also formed an implementation committee. The Prime Minister reiterated that the economic improvement of the country is his top priority.
The meeting was attended by Federal Minister for Commerce Jam Kamal Khan, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Ahad Khan Cheema, Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Muhammad Aurangzeb, Federal Minister for Petroleum Ali Pervez Malik, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Haroon Akhtar and senior officers of the concerned institutions.
