Pakistan govt withdraws development surcharge on exports

Pakistan government has abolished the development surcharge on all exports, according to a State Bank’s notification on Tuesday, a move that will help the country’s exporters cut their cost of doing business and compete in global markets.

The Export Development Surcharge (EDS) was being charged at 0.25%.

“The federal government has exempted all exported goods from Export Development Surcharge levied under sub section (1) of section 11 of the Finance Act 1991, with immediate effect,” the SBP notification read.

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Accordingly, the SBP said, its previous circular letters stood withdrawn with an immediate effect.

“Decision taken by the prime minister in a few days of forming the focused working groups with the private sector in the lead, to revoke the Export Development Surcharge, amongst other key restructuring decision,” Khurram Schehzad, Advisor to the Finance Minister, Pakistan, said in a post on X.

“The speed of decision and implementation has shown the will and commitment of the Government of Pakistan to reduce cost of doing business while providing an enabling environment for investors and exporters,” he maintained.

• The Export Development Surcharge was a 0.25% surcharge on export value, collected when export proceeds were realised and funneled into the Export Development Fund. The fund is a government-backed pool of money, financed by the export development surcharge, which supports export-promotion projects — like training institutes, trade missions, research, marketing, and infrastructure — to boost Pakistan’s export capacity

Last week, Business Recorder had reported that the government had decided to withdraw the 0.25% EDS on exports.

The decision was taken at ameeting presided over by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif which was also attended by the experts.

The prime minister had earlier constituted a dedicated Working Group on EDS, chaired by Musadaq Zulqarnain, to reassess the Export Development Fund (EDF) and propose reforms.

The group included private-sector members along with Secretary Commerce Bilal Azhar Kiyani, EDF Executive Director Mosharraf Zaidi, Shahzad Saleem, Misbah Naqvi, Khurram Mukhtar, Arif Saeed, Ahmad Umair and Sualeh Faruqi.