Tag: import

Hi there. So the news is that Government of Pakistan has lifted ban imposed by the previous Government on Commercial import of weapons and ammo. This comes at a time when the country was in a dire need of this move. The ban that was imposed by the PML(N) government resulted in huge losses to the investors. Actually all the weapons that had already been ordered by the importers were held by Customs since the ban. The Ministry of Commerce and Textiles wrote to the Customs authorities to deal with the issue on “case to case basis”.  That was very typical of an incompetent bureaucracy which gave this decision in order to absolve themselves of the issue. The Customs on the other hand refused to give way to the importers/investors. As a result of this millions of Rupees worth of weapons and ammo was held up. This resulted in imposition of heavy demurrage charges on the goods. Finally the importers had to go to courts. It took excruciatingly long time for the courts to give verdict in favor of the importers, so as to save them from huge losses. Now the investors have had to pump in more money by paying customs duties and demurrage charges. And the goods will be available in the market but at a higher price, because the investors have had to pay additional money as well as to cover their losses. Anyhow, the new import orders have been placed, and are being placed, so there’s good news coming. I am hopeful the prices will slightly fall, which is required as the supply will resume. So for now gun enthusiasts are sitting fingers crossed. 🙂 Cheers