KARACHI, Nov 5: Pakistanis consumed 70 million kgs of smuggled tea last year while imports through legal channels stood at 105 million kgs out of an estimated total consumption of 175 million kgs.

Pakistan Tea Association chairman Hamid Saeed Khawaja, who along with other members met office-bearers of Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) on Thursday, said owing to climatic conditions in tea producing area, devaluation of rupee against the dollar, the cost of doing business has increased, which gave more advantage to smugglers.

Legal trade is subject to duty on ad valorem basis (higher the cost higher the duty) whereas smuggling cost is fixed.

In a comparative presentation, he informed that during August, legal import of tea was 131,262 packages and ATT import was 249,340 packages.

In September, official import was 120,587 packages and ATT import was 97,833 and in October 88,000 packages were legally imported and 184,099 packages arrived via ATT.

According to a KCCI press release, he voiced that unlawful import was causing huge loss to national kitty every month. Several companies engaged in tea business were intending to close fearing huge losses.

Tea import represents only one per cent share in the total national import bill.

The PTA chairman said the government was already aware of this menace and the ATT figures regularly appear on its website but they are not paying any attention to the grave issue.

KCCI President Abdul Majid Haji Mohammad said that the government should consider rationalising the Afghan Transit Trade Tariffs in equivalence to Pakistan Duty Tariffs to safeguard the business of legal importers and to increase government’s revenue.