PESHAWAR, Oct 14: Afghan gemstone traders have captured the local market which is flooded with precious stones smuggled from Afghanistan.

Talking to Dawn, sources said after the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, precious stone traders migrated to Peshawar where after sometime they captured almost 75 per cent of the market.

“Local gemstone traders are required to pay the taxes, while the Afghans are exempted from any tax, which allows them to capture the local market,” they said.

Large-scale smuggling of precious stones from Afghanistan also helped the Afghan traders to get a complete hold of the Namak Mandi gems market, the sources maintained.

Normally, precious stones are smuggled from Kunar province through the porous border in Bajaur tribal agency.

According to official sources, only once an Afghan trader declared precious stones he was carrying to the customs checkpoint at the Torkham border to pay the tax.

“The customs officials had no idea that how much tax should be levied as it was for the first time a trader had brought precious stones to the checkpoint for paying tax,” officials at the Torkham border told this correspondent.

“Tax on precious stones varies from 5 per cent to 25 per cent depending how precious a stone is,” they said.

“There is no rule to stop Afghan traders from dealing in gemstones in Peshawar. But for export, they have to send their consignment through their Pakistani business partners,” the sources said.

“Under an Statutory Regularity Order (SRO) we are exempted from the import duty,” Imran Nazir, chief of the organizing committee of the four-day 10th Pakistan Gems and Mineral Show that ended on Tuesday, said.

“According to the SRO, there is no restriction on bringing gemstones from any country,” Mr Nazir asserted.

But a customs officer of deputy collector rank said the SRO was issued for the free movement of gemstones within the country. For bringing any stone to Pakistan, traders had to pay import duty, he added.

At the gems and mineral show, which is supposed to promote the local industry, many Afghan traders had set up stalls where they had put on display precious stones both from Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The organizers of the show said they had allowed only Pakistani traders to set up their stalls, but later they handed over their stalls them to their Afghan partners.

The organizers admitted that about 25 per cent precious stones of Afghan origin were on the display at the show, but they insisted that all of them had been brought after paying duty.

“None of the gem traders has paid the tax on the precious stones being displayed at the show. They will have to take them back to Afghanistan when the exhibition ends,” Collector Customs Liaquat Ali Agha said.

Emeralds, lapis lazuli, garnets and kansites mainly from Afghanistan were on display along with other precious stones of Pakistan, particularly ruby, aquamarine, topas, peridot and flourite.

Mr Nazir said the gem traders had booked export orders worth millions of rupees from the dealers from Brazil, China, France, Thailand, Germany, Iran, US and England, whose representatives visited the show.

He added that since the 9/11 incident, gemstones export had dropped drastically and the situation was still the same.