Pakistan Customs has shifted the clearance of Afghanistan and Central Asia bound perishable items from Customs Station Torkham to recently operationalised Khyber Border Terminal (KBT), Jamrud, Khyber Agency. This was stated by Deputy Collector Customs Stations Torkham, Najeeb Arjumand while talking to journalists, here on Thursday.
The decision, he said has taken to arrest congestion at the largest shortest land trade route of Pakistan. Both Chaman and Taftan routes are longest routes for Kabul, while Torkham provides shortest route for Kabul. Furthermore, Wagha is a controlled trade route. Therefore, the volume of trade through Torkham border is higher than other routes.
The perishable items included fruits and vegetables. However, the clearance of non-perishable or those items which involve the payment of rebate will continue at Torkham terminal. The construction of standard road from Peshawar to Torkham has increased trade through shortest route to Afghan capital Kabul and other parts of Afghanistan manifold.
In winter, he said over 500 trucks are cleared on daily basis while in summer the number increased to 800 trucks per day. The non-perishable goods exported through Torkham to Afghanistan included sugar, flour and cement. Due to high demand from 150 to 200 Afghanistan bound trucks loaded with cement are cleared at Torkham on daily basis.
Imports from Afghanistan through Torkham border included dry fruits, mineral coal and raw cotton. For clearing of imported goods, Pakistan Customs had installed WeBOC system at Torkham stations. WeBOC is presently clearing only mineral coal and raw cotton. After the preparation of module, export bound goods will also be cleared from the system later.
The manual system was taking long time and the clearing agents were used to file GD (Goods Declaration) of the export or import goods, but now agents can file GD electronically and the system will directly refer to examiner and the clearance will now take only 25 to 30 minutes. To a question about the training of Customs clearing agents regarding the WeBOC system, Najeeb said that Pakistan Customs imparting them training through PRAL (Pakistan Revenue Automation Limited).
The largest hurdle in the promotion of trade through the route is the lacking of big terminal, infrastructure and utilities of electricity and telephone. The provision of these facilities will enhance trade through the route manifold as it is the shortest land route to Afghanistan and Central Asia. Customs Station Torkham was established in 1954, but during last 61 years no improvement was witnessed in its infrastructure. The installation of biometric system and scanners are essential. However, now NLC has took over as operator of the terminal and the provision of these facilities is his responsibility.