The Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (Unisame) has urged Prime Minister Imran Khan to discourage huge imports of cars, luxury items and foodstuffs to lessen the burden on foreign exchange and fast depreciating rupee. In a statement issued on Tuesday, Unisame President Zulfikar Thaver said that the government needs to act wisely and not be influenced by the importers of superfluous items such as cars, luxury goods and foodstuffs. He said the government should not patronise such importers at the cost of loss to the national exchequer. He questioned what the need is for imported cars when there are so many brands of cars being made/assembled in Pakistan, saying the depletion clause is not being implemented in reality, as car assemblers are not getting the parts manufactured in Pakistan but are getting them imported through their own established companies indirectly. The Unisame president said they are defeating the very concept of depletion clause, which is to curb dependency on foreign parts and manufacture them in Pakistan. It is requested to promote manufactures of as many parts as possible in the country, he demanded. He said that import of luxury goods is another bad practice and the country must learn to do without the imported goods such as durables, cosmetics and other fancy goods made in Pakistan. He continued that a huge amount of foodstuffs is also being imported, whereas Pakistan makes all items such as cheese, butter, jams, cereals, confectionery, and it is indeed unfortunate that stationery, toilet requisites, toothpaste, brushes, combs, boot polishes and many other items of international standards are also being imported.
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