Afghan importers seek removal of more items: ATT negative list
By Mubarak Zeb Khan
ISLAMABAD, Jan 24: The Afghan importers have requested the Pakistani government to remove maximum items from the negative list of Afghan Transit Trade (ATT) to help them enhance import under the scheme to kick start the reconstruction of their country.
Well-placed sources told Dawn on Friday that this request came for the second time from the Afghan importers for the withdrawal of more items placed under the negative list.
Following the first request received from the Afghan government in October 2002, the Ministry of Commerce was considering to withdraw 8 items out of 24 from the negative
list, which were yet to be notified.
Those expected items included: tape recorder; juicer, blender, mixer; video cassette; VCR, VCP; glassware, dinner set; timers (capacitors) and refrigerators.
Sources said that the importers also warned that in case their demand was not met by the Pakistani government then they would prefer to import goods through Iran.
Following a lukewarm response from Pakistan, sources said the Iranian government has annouced maximum facilities for the Afghan importers with open transit facility to import any kind of goods under ATT through the Bandar Abbas Port.
According to sources, the Iranian government also started carpeting of road up to Herat province of Afghanistan, which is close to its territory to facilitate the Afghan traders.
On the other hand, the sources said that the Indian goods were also making their way through the Bandar Abbas Port to Afghanistan for its onward movement to Central Asian Republics (CARs) to capture markets for its products.
Sources said that smuggling of those goods banned under ATT were imported through Iran, which were only smuggled into Pakistan through the porous border between the two countries.
The border between Iran and Afghanistan was not favourable for smugglers due to tight security, the sources said.
When asked a senior Customs official in the Central Board of Revenue, he said that in case these items withdrawn from the list would now have no major impact on the production of local industries.
Elaborating further, the official said that the government has already reduced the customs duty on most of the items, which were prone to smuggling from Afghanistan.
He proposed that the government should further decrease the import duty on those items which were still prone to smuggling, which would ultimately discourage the smuggling of these items.
The government for the first time to discourage the smuggling, banned 17 items in 1996 under Afghan Transit Trade, which helped in reducing the ratio of smuggling of these items. Again, the government in 2000-01 further prohibited seven more items under Afghan Transit Trade.
