Govt plans hike in taxes on mobile phones, cars, other imported items

ISLAMABAD: Taxes on mobile phones and vehicles above 1000cc are going to be doubled as the federal government has planned to increase duty on imported products, ARY NEWS reported.

According to the proposed increase in tax on imported items, the government has planned to increase regulatory duty on tyres by 50 per cent, 10 per cent on machinery and 50 per cent on household machinery.

According to sources within FBR, a 30 percent increase in regulatory duty on power generation related machinery and 10 percent on steel products is also proposed for the budget 2022-23.

“100 percent regulatory duty will be hiked on vehicle above 1000cc,” they said adding that duty on mobile phones will also be doubled and it has proposed to increase it from Rs6,000 to Rs44,000.

It has been further proposed that regulatory duty on imported tiles should be increase by 40 percent.

According to sources, the measures are aimed at minimizing the current account deficit that has ballooned owing to higher imports in the country.

It is pertinent to mention here that the government’s indecisiveness on key measures to arrest US dollar’s upward slide has led to greenback’s rising streak against the rupee on Wednesday as it reached an all-time high of Rs200 in the open market.

According to the Forex Association of Pakistan (FAP), the greenback gained Rs1.68 in the interbank market from the previous day’s close of Rs196.50 and climbed to Rs197.66 around 11:26am.

The forex dealers said that US dollar gained Rs 2 in the intraday trading in the open market to trade at over Rs200.