ISLAMABAD (Eshfak Mughal):-Despite the huge complaints against restrictions on imports and opening of Letter of credits (LCs), the import bill surged to $4.85 billion during the month of January 2023.
The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) has issued a break up of trade of goods during the first seven months of the current fiscal year.
According to the report, the import bill was recorded at $4.85 billion during January 2023 as compared to $5.15 billion during Dec 2022. The data shows that the import bill was decreased by 5.78 percent during January 2023 as compared to Dec 2022, the report shows.
On year-on-year basis, the import bill was decreased by 19.55 percent to $4.85 billion from $6.03 billion during Jan 2023 as compared to January 2022, according to the data.
The country has recorded import bill worth $4.85 billion despite the huge complaints against the restrictions on imports and opening of LCs during the last month.
It is pertinent to mention here that there were lot of complaints circulated during the last month that the importers are facing severe shortage of US dollar for opening LCs.
According to the market sources, thousands of containers worth $4 billion are stuck up at ports due to restrictions of imports and opening of LCs. The situation may create shortage of food items in the country coming days, they said.
There were also complaints that different sectors and industrial unites are being closed as they have no imported raw material due to restrictions of imports on certain goods. Export receipts may also fall drastically due to restrictions on imports of raw material of export oriented sector, there were also reports.
It seems that the notion didn’t reflect substantially on the export figures of January 2023.
The PBS reported that export receipt was decreased by 4.41 percent to $2.21 billion from $2.31 billion during January 2023 as compared to Dec 2022.
The trade deficit was decreased by 6.69 percent to $2.64 billion during January 2023 as compared to $2.84 billion in Dec 2022, according to the PBS.
The export receipt of goods was decreased by 7.16 percent to $16.47 billion from $17.74 billion during the first seven of the current fiscal year as compared to same period of the last fiscal year. The import bill of goods was decreased by 22.53 percent to $36.1 billion from $46.6 billion during the first seven months of the current fiscal year as compared to the same period of the last fiscal year.
Consequently, the trade deficit was decreased by 31.97 percent to $19.63 billion from $28.86 billion during the first seven of the current fiscal year as compared to the same period of the last fiscal year.
The restrictions on imports were introduced by the State Bank followed by free fall of foreign reserves of the State Bank due to low inflows and high outflows. The foreign reserves of the State Bank were decreased by $6.72 billion from $9.81 billion to $3.086 billion during the first seven months of the current fiscal year.