29 October 2004	Friday	14 Ramazan 1425

PESHAWAR, Oct 28: The volume of goods transported from Peshawar to Afghanistan under the Afghan Transit Trade (ATT) has grown manifold in the recent years as a result of Islamabad's decision to liberalize its trade policy towards the war-torn country, according to official sources.

"The ATT has registered a substantial growth during last couple of years because of Islamabad's liberal policies," said a Peshawar-based officer of the Central Board of Revenue (CBR).

The total value of goods allowed to be exported via Torkham during financial year 2003-04 stood at about Rs7.8 billion, which reflected a considerable increase in comparison with financial years of 2001-02 and 2002-03.

The current financial year's situation, according to the official and market sources, is similar to the last fiscal year when the ATT recorded a substantial growth.

Though the number of goods transported under the ATT during the first five months of the current financial year appeared to be slightly less than the last year, the decrease was the result of development cess which had been levied by the Sindh government, the market sources said.

Scores of containers were not cleared by traders because of the provincial government's levy, which had been recently withdrawn on the instructions of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, said Ziaul Haq Sarhadi, a customs clearance agent.

The sources said the ATT volume was expected to grow substantially during coming months when businessmen would start getting cleared their goods lying at the Karachi Port.

"This would expand the volume of ATT to new heights," said an official.

Goods transported under the ATT in financial year 2003-04 recorded an increase of 39 per cent as compared with financial year 2001-02 and appeared to be 34 per cent more when compared with goods transported in financial year 2002-03.

Goods valuing Rs4.7 billion had been exported under the ATT in financial year 2001-02. Whereas, the value of goods allowed to be transported in financial year 2002-03 stood at Rs5.2 billion.

Increase in the quantum of ATT has been attributed to the federal government's decision to remove certain items from the negative list that had been prepared to stop misuse of the facility.

The federal government removed ball-bearings, vegetable ghee, black tea, air-conditioners and yarn from the negative list during the period from January to April 2004.

The removal of the above-mentioned items, which was done on the insistence of the Afghan government, led to expand the ATT.

According to the sources, ball-bearings up to the value of Rs46 million were allowed to be transported to Afghanistan under the ATT, whereas the value of black tea and vegetable ghee stood at around Rs865 million and 223 million, respectively.

The government had earlier included black tea and vegetable ghee on the negative list because of heavy misuse of the transit trade facility. It was found that goods transported to Afghanistan under the ATT were illegally sent back to Pakistan without payment of customs duty and other taxes.

The market sources said that the possibility of ATT facility being misused could not be ruled out.

It was possible that that black tea and vegetable ghee transported to Afghanistan under the ATT were brought back to Pakistan illegally by using unfair means.

Other major items being imported by Afghanistan under the ATT include medicines, electric appliances, crockery, blankets and generators.