Pakistan relaxes restriction on import of used cars

ISLAMABAD: The federal government on Thursday amended the Import Policy 2022 and eased the restriction imposed on the import of used cars, ARY News reported.

According to the notification, the Ministry of Commerce has allowed the import of used cars with a mileage of 2,000 kilometres. The govt. had earlier allowed the import of used cars with up to 500 kilometres mileage.

“Under the amended import policy, cars with a mileage of up to 2,000 kilometres will be considered new, the ministry’s notification read.

Previous governments [PTI, PDM] had imposed severe curbs on the import of cars in their bid to preserve the depleting forex reserves.

Last month, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) announced relaxing the regulations for advance payments of imports allowing the authorised dealers to make full payments in advance without prior approval.

According to reports, car sales went down in Pakistan by about 50% in the first seven months of the fiscal year as compared to the previous year due to different reasons including the increasing rates, the monopoly of the automobile companies and the restrictions on imports.