Trans-loading, change of carriers under APTTA: FBR rejects private sector proposal

The Federal Board of Revenue on Tuesday flatly rejected a private sector proposal for trans-loading, transshipment and change of Afghan carriers at Peshawar or Chaman, carrying imported consignments under Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA).
The FBR officials made it clear that unless Pakistan or Afghanistan governments did not agree to revise the agreement, the authority FBR could not allow anything prohibited under the agreement. Mumtaz Haider Rizvi, member customs told a parliamentary panel that over 600 FBR officials have already been suspended while an investigation against some 400 is underway in container scam case. "We can not take even a single step which is not allowed under the agreement [APTTA]", he maintained.
Senate standing committee on commerce, which met here with Ilyas Bilour in the chair, was briefed regarding decisions on DTRE on export of vegetables, ghee from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan and operational difficulties faced by Pakistani businessmen once the APTTA is operational. Rizvi informed the parliamentary panel that Afghan government is charging 120 percent of the value of Pakistani exports consignments as cash guarantee while in transit to Central Asian Republics.
After putting pressure, he said, the Afghan side has changed the bank guarantee into insurance guarantee - equal to the value of Afghan consignments in transit through Pakistan. He informed the committee that presently there is only 1197 containers pendency at Karachi port and it has been reduced to 8900 containers in recent past.
After implementation of APTTA due to its anti-smuggling measures like ban on trans-loading, partial shipment, introduction of new mechanism of sealing and de-sealing of containers smuggling of cloth, tyres, tea, mobile oil and auto parts, he added, have been decreased three-time and their legal imports have stared picking up.
Ishaq Dar, a member of the committee said that Senate committee should help the local business community to resolve difficulties faced by them after implementation of APTTA 2010. He flayed rejection of private sector demands by FBR, saying that it has been proved that containers were opened in connivance with the customs officials and goods imported under transit agreement were sold in local market.
The committee was stunned to note that National Logistic Cell (NLC), despite charging heavy fares up to Jalalabad is offloading the transit consignments at Ghulam Khan and denying their transportation to Jalalabad. Ishaq Dar, Haroon Akhtar termed it unjustified, saying that if NLC is not completing its contractual obligations, FBR and commerce ministry should take up the matter with NLC management.
The private sector representatives from Transit Trade Group of Torkham and Chaman informed the committee that under APTTA, the government had disallowed transporters of Peshawar and Chaman to carry Afghan consignments on their transport to Afghanistan.
They said that it has hampered business activity but also caused suffering about 15 lakh transport workers, who lost their jobs due to not allowing transport of Afghan consignments. They were of the view that government should allow trans-loading, partial shipment of Afghan consignments at Peshawar and Chaman as well as change on transport so that local transporters could get due share of transport activity.