Pakistan increased tax on luxury goods

Pakistan has decided to increase taxes on imports of luxury goods and services to meet the conditions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan. The country’s parliament on Monday (February 20) passed a bill to increase taxes on luxury goods. In a report, this information was given by the news agency AFP.

The country is on the brink of economic collapse due to recent political unrest and economic mismanagement. The government of Pakistan has already stopped the import of almost all types of goods except food and medicine due to the decrease in the foreign exchange reserves of the central bank.

Meanwhile, Pakistan has been running for days to get a loan waiver of 6.5 billion dollars from the IMF. However, the Washington-based financial institution has stipulated that in order to get the loan, fuel prices and taxes on goods must be increased.

Pakistan’s legislature on Monday (February 20) approved a supplementary financing bill to increase sales tax from 17 percent to 25 percent. These include cars, home appliances, chocolates and cosmetics.

Meanwhile, in less than a month after the artificial pricing system was removed, the country fell into a cash crisis. As a result, the Pakistani rupee lost more than a quarter of its value against the US dollar.

In addition, fuel prices rose by more than a fifth as the government implemented the necessary financial measures to raise funds from an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout.

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