LAHORE, May 17: The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry has urged Islamabad to approach the Afghan government to bring it home to Kabul to take tariff measures to control smuggling, under-invoicing , and misdeclaration that is posing serious challenge to the Pakistani industry.

In its proposals for the budget 2004-05 sent to the government last week, the LCCI has said that it is high time that the policy-makers start taking effective measures to check smuggling to save the local industry.

"The people involved in smuggling, specially from Afghanistan, are very organized, and use sophisticated techniques to transport goods from one place to another. It is estimated that majority of the goods imported through Afghan Transit Trade returns Pakistan, posing serious challenges to local industry," the proposals say.

The LCCI has focused in its proposals on issues related to the tariffs on local and imported raw materials, semi-finished goods, and imported finished products.

"The import of machinery should be allowed at zero rate to encourage "modernization" of the industry and input cost be reduced to the minimum level to curb smuggling. Cost of doing business should be reduced to attract investment in the industrial sector," the chamber demands.