Deletion of stainless steel sheets from ATT list demanded

President Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI), Muhammad Ishaq Butt, has called upon the government to take effective steps for stopping smuggling of stainless steel under Pak-Afghan transit trade.
Talking to Business Recorder here on Wednesday afternoon he said that Afghanistan does not possess vast industrial base which may be able to process stainless sheets as raw material in large quantity, but despite that stainless steel sheets, coils are imported under Afghan Transit Trade (ATT) and this material was being smuggled to Pakistan.
During past three months almost 3,700 tons stainless sheets, coils have been smuggled into the Gujranwala market, which caused revenue loss of amounting to Rs 120 million to government, he disclosed. The SCCI President said that Gujranwala is main market of stainless steel and coils in the country and handsome amount of import duties and various other taxes to the tune of Rs 3 billion annually were paid in the national exchequer.
A large number of industries in Gujranwala, Sialkot and Wazirabad use stainless steel as raw material for producing different kinds of high quality products, like kitchenware, surgical instruments, cutlery and fan, etc, which were not only used locally but were also exported to different countries of the world, he said.
The SCCI President further added that due to the smuggling all these sectors were facing problems, which would intensify if corrective measures were not taken to stop this criminal exercise. Huge loss of government revenue, shortage of business activities, especially commercial importers suffer due to market instability and closure of factories, which will result in high rate of unemployment, he said.
He urged the government to take strict action against the smugglers and entry points should be observed at Afghan boarders to ensure prevention of smuggling of stainless steel and coils. There should be equal custom tariff for all goods for both Pakistan and Afghanistan, he said.
The SCCI President suggested the Government of Afghanistan should collect revenue and deposit in the account of Afghan government or reduce the custom import tariff at minimum level so that commercial importers will compete with smugglers. In view of Afghan industrial base stainless steel sheets and coil should be deleted from Afghan Trade list, security should be tightened to avoid smuggling through all check posts and bill of entry should be verified at places, like Attock and vehicles of all the goods entering into Pakistan should be unloaded for physical checking.