To avoid losses to the importers, FPCCI president Irfan Iqbal Sheikh has urged that import orders already in place for the banned items in the list announced on Thursday, be cleared first; otherwise, importers will suffer a huge setback because they will not be able to recover their payments already made to their exporting partners for the 41 HS Code items on the banned list. Irfan Iqbal Sheikh explained that as provided under the proviso to Para-4 of the Import Policy Order (IPO) 2022, the imports for which the bill of lading or irrevocable Letter of Credit was issued preceding the announcement of an amending order must be exempt from the ban. Therefore, it is an absolute imperative for the government to issue a clarification, in accordance with the law, to mitigate the panic that has spread in the market after the ban. FPCCI Chief emphasized that the implementation of the decision should be carried out meticulously and a breathing period of 2 weeks should be allowed; so that, all the prior orders in place before the ban was announced could be completed. He noted that it would be illegal to enforce the ban on the orders placed before the decision was taken by the government. Irfan Iqbal Sheikh added that the business community appreciates the ban on non-essential luxury items in general; as it will save precious foreign exchange in the current time of crisis. He also pinned his hopes on the government to have the foreign exchange crunch sorted out before the ban period of two months is over. Irfan Iqbal Sheikh maintained that the move will save $600 million over the course of two months; and, as a result, will help slow down the depletion of foreign exchange reserves and help stabilize the rupee value.