Pakistan government increased on Thursday the utilisation period under the Export Facilitation Scheme (EFS) from 9 to 18 months. Minister of State for Finance Bilal Azhar Kayani announced the development in a post on X. “This essentially means that exporters can now avail zero duty and import stage taxes for imported inputs provided that they are used within 18 months (previously this period was 9 months),” he said. “The longer utilisation period will help reduce the cost for our exporters and will particularly help our SME exporters.” Also read: Pakistan banks cut ERF rate by 3%, bring export financing down to 4.5% The minister further said an additional extension for 6 months, beyond the 18 month utilisation period, would be considered by a committee on a case-by-case basis. A six-monthly reconciliation statement is expected to safeguard the EFS scheme from abuse. “I would like to express my gratitude to colleagues from FBR and the Ministry of Commerce, and to partners from the private sector including Mr Fawad Anwar (PTC), Mr Khurram Mukhtar (PTEA), and Mr Kamran Arshad (APTMA) for working with me in the Technical Committee which unanimously recommended these policy changes to the Honourable Prime Minister. I am especially grateful to the Prime Minister for approving the Committee’s recommendations.” The committee studied and considered historical EFS data and utilisation period benchmarks of regional peers before arriving at its unanimous recommendations. Before this policy change, there were a total of 7,932 Goods Declarations (GDs) of EFS users’ input goods, which had exceeded the allowed 9-month period. After the policy change to the 18 month utilisation period, all of these GDs are now again eligible for exports under EFS, as per the minister. Meanwhile, two additional improvements have also been made: 1.  Automatic replenishment of the amount of security deposit to the extent of the amount of goods consumed and exported, which will save exporters time. 2. EFS users have a been given the right of appeal with the Chief Collector against the orders of regulatory collector