PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Haji Ghulam Ali and Pak-Afghan Joint Chamber of Commerce & Industry (PAJCCI) delegation have agreed to constitute a steering committee to review issues and hurdles in Pak-Afghan bilateral trade on monthly basis.
The steering committee headed by a private sector stakeholders and consisting of the representatives of Frontier Corps, NLC, Police, Afghan Consulate, Deputy Commissioner Khyber and Pakistan Customs will work like a Facilitation Committee established at Torkham Border on a monthly basis and meetings of traders and stakeholders of Pakistan and Afghanistan will be held under its auspices.
A consensus in this regard was developed during meeting of a delegation of PAJCCI with the KP Governor Haji Ghulam Ali. Coordinator of PAJCCI, Zia-ul-Haq Sarhadi led the delegation.
During the meeting, PAJCCI Coordinator, Ziaul Haq Sarhadi briefed the governor in detail about the purpose and objectives of the joint chamber of both neighbouring countries. He said that the joint chamber consisted of 400 members from both countries has 22 members Executive Committee with 50% representatives from each country. The joint chamber is playing crucial role in promotion of bilateral trade between both countries since last 12 years.
The international chamber is founded by the renowned businessman Muhammad Zubair Motiwala as its chairman and Junaid Makda of Afghanistan as president respectively while Khan Jan Alkozai is its co-chairman from Afghan side.
The delegation, while highlighting hurdles and issues in the bilateral trade between Pak-Afghan, said that on October 3, 2023, the Ministry of Commerce Islamabad has issued SRO 1380 and had deleted 14 items from the list of Afghan Transit Trade, which actually consist of 212 items and imposed charging of 10% processing fee on transit cargo under another SRO 1387 and despite already existing insurance guarantee, 100% bank guarantee was also imposed on these cargoes.
This move has placed an additional burden on merchants of the transit trade business, a commission of Rs 150000 to the bank concerned, beside 35% Federal Excise Duty (FED) and they will also have to face investigation by various federal agencies for the money trail.
He complained that the government itself is promoting Hundi-based trade as Pakistan has no banking channel with Afghanistan. He said that unfriendly business measures have resulted in shifting transit trade from Karachi Port to Bandar Abbas and Chabahar of Iran rendering thousands of Customs clearing agents, shipping agents, border agents, transporters, labourers and other axillaries unemployed. The move has also resulted in more than 70% decrease in trade with Afghanistan and Central Asian states.
He informed the KP governor that currently about 12 different national agencies are monitoring Pak Afghan trade, saying that the issue of smuggling can be resolved through checking at the borders.
He said there are many hardships in exporting goods to Afghanistan, because of the restrictions imposed by various agencies. He said that before the merger of the erstwhile Federal Administered Tribal Area (FATA), Political Agent, the administrator of then Khyber Agency was used to permit each truck after receiving about Rs 5000 and trucks were reaching Torkham Border without payment to others. But, now after the merger of FATA with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa the process has changed and now different departments are asking for money in head of various services, which has overburdened the merchants.
Zia ul Haq Sarhadi, who is also the chairman of the Standing Committee of Sarhad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SCCI) on Dry Port, also demanded the operation of export cargo train from the Azakhail Dry Port.
He said that the Azakhail Dry Port was established at the cost of Rs 600 million, almost four years ago which is still not fully operationalised.
In response to the issues highlighted by the delegation, the KP governor assured to invite the authorities of concerned departments to resolve the problems.
He asked the delegation of PAJCCI to submit their demands in black and white and mention them one by one. He assured that all issues will be taken up with the relevant authorities and a steering committee will also be announce soon while all possible steps to facilitate while for this purpose all possible steps will be the merchants will also be taken.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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