According to newspaper reports, the trade deficit has reached $32.6 billion during the current fiscal year, showing an increase of over 36 percent as compared to the last year’s figures. In one year, export volume remained $21 billion whereas imports increased to more than $53 billion.There is no denying the fact that the country lost 20 percent of its exports to the regional competitors since the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz took over the reign of the government in 2013. The trade deficit has increased to over 31 percent during the first quarter of the financial year 2017-18 over its value in the same period in the last fiscal year.This is the performance of a government which came to power in the name of economic reforms and people’s prosperity. Experts believe the relative decline in exports is marginal, but even then it is not an achievement in any sense as the low inflow of money puts tremendous pressure on the foreign exchange reserves. In a bid to discourage imports, the government has recently introduced regulatory duty on the import of goods of various denominations.
The import of finished goods is subjected to higher tariffs in Pakistan than several countries in the region and that is the area of concern for the customs authorities, which have to deploy a good number of its staff to curb smuggling. Reports suggest Pakistan keeps higher tariff on the importof textile goods, footwear, electronics and vehicles.Tariff on vehicles is even higher than many regional countries, which result in creating troubles for various government agencies. According to the World Bank, the exports from Pakistan were 8.7 percent of the GDP with regard to percentage during the last fiscal year as compared to the global average of 29.4 percent two years ago. Another report suggests Pakistan is less open to trade, in terms of its GDP, as compared to other countries in the region. The total trade as GDP percentage, including imports and exports, for Pakistan is 24.5 percent as compared to an average of 39 percent in South Asia.
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The recent political turmoil is drifting away the national economy to nowhere as no one knows what is going on in this country. The writ of the government is absent and the officials, no matter from which department they belong to, are least interested in doing their duties. However, there is still hoped the ministry of commerce will utilise the export package announced by the erstwhile prime minister to boost export of value added goods. This is the only way to curtail pressure on foreign exchange reserves.
