Goods imported from Pakistan will be getting costlier now. Government has hiked customs duty by 200 percent with immediate effect following one of the deadliest suicide attacks in Pulwama on Thursday that killed 50 CRPF jawans.
The move comes after India revoked the ‘Most Favored Nation’ status to Pakistan.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley tweeted, “India has withdrawn MFN status to Pakistan after the Pulwama incident. Upon withdrawal, basic customs duty on all goods exported from Pakistan to India has been raised to 200% with immediate effect.”
India granted Pakistan the status in 1996 though it was not reciprocated by the country. Hike in custom duties to such an extent would significantly hit the country’s exports to India. This means almost banning the goods.
In 2017-18 the total exports of Pakistan to India was $488.5 million.
The items that Pakistan exports to India include cement, fresh fruits, petroleum products, bulk minerals and ores and finished leather.
The customs duty on fruits was 30-50 percent while on cement was 7.5 percent. Increase of 200 percent means a huge hike.
Besides, India can restrict trade of certain goods too and impose port-related restrictions on those.
In 2016-17 the total India-Pakistan trade was $2.27 billion while it increased to $2.41 billion in 2017-18.
