GILGIT, June 6: Traders and national exchequer have suffer an estimated loss of Rs156.78 million owing to the closure of border with China at Sost due to fears of severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars), officials of the Northern Areas Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NACCI) said.

They said that during the last one month the traders in the Northern Areas suffered a loss of Rs100m, the Northern Areas Transport Corporation (NATCO) lost Rs5 million, Customs revenue collection fell by Rs49.18m, Rs800,000 was paid by the importers whose consignments were blocked and had to pay charges to truckers in China, and the hotels along the Karakoram Highway had lost around Rs1.8 million.

The NACCI officials said that hundreds of stranded Pakistani importers in Kashi (old name Kashgar) inside China had booked their consignments two months back in the hope of border opening in May but due to closure of the border at Sost in the Khunjerab valley they were to pay Rs4000 per day as halting charges and at least 200 trucks were standing in Kashi that worked out to be Rs800,000 a month.

The NATCO managing director Zafar Iqbal said that their corporation had incurred Rs5 million loss in a month as they were unable to operate buses and trucks from Sost to Kashi.

Due to border closure the hotels along the KKH also suffered estimated loss of Rs1.8 million per month besides rendering hundreds of hotel workers jobless.

According to the NACCI statistics more than 1200 labourers and porters also lost their livelihood at Sost checkpoint due to border closure.

The Pakistan-China border traders held Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry responsible for influencing officials to keep the border closed on the pretext of Sars fear even though the trade activities were conducted by air and sea routes.