ISLAMABAD, Sept 17: The import value of Afghan Transit Trade (ATT) declined by 25 per cent in the first two months (July-August) of the current fiscal year over the same months of the last year.

Official data available with Dawn showed that in absolute term, the value of ATT declined to Rs3.112 billion during the period under review as against Rs4.149 billion during the same months last year.

On monthly basis, the statistics showed that the ATT volume registered a negative growth of 43.1 per cent in July 2005 and three per cent in August 2005 over the corresponding months of the last year.

The declining trend in the import of goods under ATT had started since May 2005 when it fell by 27 per cent followed by 44.5 per cent decrease in June 2005 over the corresponding months of the last year.

While the government among other measures had recently trimmed the negative list by allowing the imports of three more items including tyres and tubes, television sets and its parts, telephone sets from the list. Now only auto parts, cooking oil and cigarettes were still banned under the ATT from the earlier 24 items.

A senior official attributed the decrease in the value of ATT to the levy of development cess by the Sindh government in August 2004. The Sindh government at the direction of the prime minister had suspended the levying of this cess to June 30, 2005.

However, the present status of the levy was yet to be clarified by the Sindh government, the official said.

In the meantime the Iranian government had announced a series of measures for attracting Afghan importers to divert their imports through Bandar Abbas port.

According to the official, Indians were also exporting goods through the same port to Afghanistan at cheaper prices, which also restricted the import under the ATT through Pakistan.

The official said that Pakistan was planning to establish 12 custom stations on Pak-Afghan border and the state-of-the-art facilities were being set up at Torkham and Chaman for speedy clearance.