Malik Asrar Ahmed Awan, President of Multan Chamber of Commerce & Industry (MCCI) has rejected clarification of FBR and the government that the agreement regarding Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA), has not been signed yet, but only the minutes of the meeting have been endorsed by authorities.
He categorically stated that the agreement would be signed according to its draft/minutes 'for 50 years'. APTTA would be harmful to Pakistan's economy and would be destructive and counterproductive for the local industry. The agreement would also catalyse smuggling, he added. He said authorities should have held deliberations the business community before preparing and finalising minutes of the controversial APTTA agreement.
Awan said when local manufacturers, industrialists and chambers raised voice against this agreement, government took a new turn and stated that APTTA, for approval, would be sent to the cabinet and then later on, if required, to national assembly. This is an abortive attempt to placate the manufacturers, he said.
He called upon government to take entire nation into confidence on APTTA as people have reservations on it. Furthermore, he said, such a decision is strange as already there are talks regarding putting quantitative restrictions on imports through sea, as last year only, more than 10,000 containers were imported by Afghanistan out of which 6,500 were of commercial nature.
The MCCI firmly believes that this is not the quantum and quantity which is required by Afghanistan as majority of these goods are re-routed to create problems for the manufacturing sector of the country, he added.
President MCCI opined that Afghanistan-India trade should be done, under international laws, through sea via Karachi. He pointed that Pakistan is losing approximately 2 to 3 billion dollars in tax revenue ie customs duties, GST and a total estimated volume of 10 billion dollars under illegal transit trade (under ATT) in last few years.
Massive scale smuggling of back tea, vehicle tyres, electronic goods, kitchen items, home appliances and other goods were done. He noted that people in Afghanistan prefer to drink green tea and not black tea and their market was just not able to absorb the quantity of electronics and other goods booked in great volumes, clearly indicating that something fishy was going on.
He further noted that under ATT, Afghanistan was bound to facilitate Pakistan transit trade with CARs, but instead, it imposed a number of restrictions on Pakistanis trading with CARs via Afghanistan.
Afghanistan's government has made it mandatory for Pakistani traders to get their trade contracts with their Central Asian counterparts, registered with various ministries of Afghanistan. A Pakistani trader has to pay 2000-3000 dollars per container, besides waiting for more than 15 days to get the cumbersome formalities completed.