PESHAWAR: Customs clearing agents continued their strike for the second consecutive day on Friday to protest imposition of one per cent infrastructure development cess by the excise, taxation and narcotics control department. Customs officials said the two-day strike had caused a loss of about Rs40 million to the federal government.
The tax, members of the Frontier Customs Clearing Agents, said was already charged in Karachi and Punjab in transshipment permit before arrival of the consignments at Peshawar dry port.
“The charge of infrastructure development cess at Peshawar is dual taxation and the business community will continue to oppose it,” the agents said. They said the traders were already facing multiple problems in exports and 70 per cent of the goods of Afghan Transit Trade had been shifted to Iran’s Chabahar and Bandarabbas ports and new taxes would add to problems for them.
The strike, they vowed would continue till withdrawal of the government’s decision in this regard.
Meanwhile, customs department in Peshawar has thrown its weight behind the striking clearing agents. A statement issued from the customs house on Friday, said that the tax was also levied in Sindh and Punjab but the ratio was very low compared to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
“The new tax measure announced by the government might lead to a drop in the revenue of about Rs500 million a month earned from the Peshawar dry port,” the statement cautioned, pointing out that only two days of strike by customs clearing agents had caused a loss of about Rs40 million to the government.
Meanwhile, customs anti-smuggling mobile squad seized auto parts worth Rs16 million from a trailer and registered case against the accused persons.
The auto parts, mostly engines of vehicles, were seized in Peshawar while being taken to Punjab without clearing customs duty on them. Customs officials also seized foreign cigarettes and batteries.
Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2016
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