PESHAWAR, Nov 6: Successive governments’ efforts to control the misuse of Afghan Transit Trade (ATT) by imposing restrictions apparently remained ineffective as neither the size of the trade got reduced nor could reentry of the transit trade goods from Afghanistan to Pakistan be stopped.

The NWFP government figures of the value of goods under ATT between 1991-92 and 2000-01 financial years substantiate the fact that restrictions imposed by successive governments to control the misuse of ATT did not affect the overall quantum of the trade or its scope, said the sources.

“Although Islamabad banned import (for Afghanistan) of televisions, air conditioners and other electronic appliances apart from several other items, these restrictions least affected the volume and scope of the trade,” said a Peshawar-based senior officer of the Central Board of Revenue.

The value-wise details of goods imported by Afghanistan via NWFP under the ATT during the last ten years are as under:

Financial Value of Goods

Year (Rs in million)

1991-92 300

1992-93 1579

1993-94 6124

1994-95 6619

1995-96# 3719

1996-97# 3049

1997-98# 7321

1998-99# 8657

1999-2000# 5407

2000-2001 7962

After recording a decline for two years - 1995-96 and 1996-97 financial years when a negative list of around 35 items had been prepared - the size of ATT started growing from the 1997-98 financial year.

“The import of food items and goods of daily use — under the ATT— which are high in demand in Pakistan and could be justified for Afghanistan recorded sharp increase during the last four to five years,” said the official sources.

Sugar, said the sources, was one such item that recorded sharp increase. During the financial year ended on June 30, 2001, sugar of Rs1.2bn was imported for Afghanistan was provided passage from NWFP under the Afghan Transit Trade.

On more than one occasion during the last financial year, the Peshawar-based customs authorities confiscated trucks loaded with bags of sugar because they did not contain the exact quantity that had been imported to Pakistan for its onward transportation to Afghanistan under the ATT.

In one such incident a consignment of sugar bags - of 80 kg each - was confiscated after some 400 bags of sugar were found to be missing out of the total 1,200 bags that were supposed to be provided passage from the NWFP to Afghanistan under the ATT.

Apart from sugar, other items whose import under the ATT recorded sharp increase include black pepper, green tea, motor oil, pad locks, sewing machines, tooth pastes and wheat flour.

Tooth paste is one such item which is imported, under the ATT, with primary considerations for its reentry to Pakistan where it is high in demand.

“The item is not in high demand in Afghanistan where majority of the people use mouth wash powders and other conventional items,” said the sources.

During the last financial year tooth paste of the market value of Rs100m was imported by Afghanistan only through NWFP under the Afghan Transit Trade apart from an equally larger quantity of the same, which was provided passage under the Afghan Transit Trade, from Quetta.