ISLAMABAD, Nov 13: The government on Tuesday tightened restriction on import of satellite television equipment.

Now satellite dishes, decoders, recording and reception equipment could be imported only with the permission of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority.

A notification issued by the commerce ministry said the import policy order, 2007, had been amended to the effect that the import of satellite television equipment would require a ‘no-objection certificate’ from Pemra.

“All equipment used for reception, broadcast and distribution of satellite signals pertaining to the field of electronic media such as satellite dishes, decoders, receivers, digital satellite news gathering, encoder, modulator, high-powered amplifier, integrated digital receiver, broadband global access network, low-noise amplifier, low-noise block, camera with satellite transmission facility, digital head-end, etc shall be allowed into the country only after obtaining specific permission” from Pemra, the ministry said.

An official told Dawn that the import of these products was already subject to the permission of Pemra but it had not been mentioned in the import policy order.

In the last budget, import duty on the products was reduced to around five per cent to promote the electronic media.