Govt extends EFS utilisation period to 18 months: Bilal Azhar Kayani

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 19th Mar, 2026) The government has increased the utilisation period under the Export Facilitation Scheme (EFS) from 9 months to 18 months, Minister of State for Finance and Railways, Bilal Azhar Kayani said here Thursday.

“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 wrote on X while sharing notification issued by the Federal board of Revenue (FBR) in this regard.

The minister said ,the longer utilisation period would help reduce the cost for our exporters and will particularly help our SME exporters.

An additional extension for 6 months, beyond the 18 month utilisation period, will be considered by a Committee on a case-by-case basis. A six-monthly reconciliation statement will help safeguard the EFS scheme from abuse.

He expressed gratitude to colleagues from FBR and the Ministry of Commerce, and to partners from the private sector including Fawad Anwar (PTC), Khurram Mukhtar (PTEA) and Kamran Arshad (APTMA) for working with him in the Technical Committee which unanimously recommended these policy changes to the Prime Minister.

“ am especially grateful to the Prime Minister for approving the Committee’s recommendations, he said adding 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.

Two additional improvements have also been made including Automatic replenishment of the amount of security deposit to the extent of the amount of goods consumed and exported, which will save exporters time; and EFS users have been given the right of appeal with the Chief Collector against the orders of regulatory collector.

Kayani said, under the leadership of Prime Minister, the government was committed to achieving export-led, private sector-led, sustainable economic growth for Pakistan.