PESHAWAR, July 16: Shortage of trucks and restrictions on transport companies owned by Afghans are affecting the transit trade to Afghanistan. Traders involved in the trade said the country’s trucking sector was not geared towards dealing with the growing volume of trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan. On the contrary, the existing state of affairs was causing operational inefficiencies.

They said that Peshawar, owing to its peculiar location, had turned into a hub for movement of transit goods but the sector was inefficient because of policy constraints and shortage of vehicles, resulting in delays and higher freight charges.

Chairman of the Frontier Customs Agents Group Ziaul Haq Sarhadi said that there was no official mechanism to determine freight charges for Afghanistan, adding that they were set on a daily basis mainly depending upon availability of vehicles.

Traders said most vehicles involved in transporting transit goods were owned by Afghan nationals, who complained of the government’s “discriminatory policies”.

They pointed out that while Pakistani trucks could move freely in Afghanistan, Afghan truckers were not allowed to travel beyond Peshawar.

Gul Afzal Shinwari, president of the Pak-Afghan Traders’ Group, argued that transit goods reached Peshawar through the trucks of the National Logistic Cell (NLC) at Amangarh in Nowshera dry port, from where they were transported to Afghanistan, mostly in trucks owned by Afghan nationals.

“Since Afghan truckers are not allowed to go beyond Peshawar, they are compelled to pay Rs2,500-3,000 in fines to fetch goods from the dry port in each trip. This ultimately increases cost of transportation,” explained Mr Shinwari.

According to him, increase in petroleum prices and low quantum of export goods had inflated the transportation costs during the past couple of years.

A 10-wheeler truck with a 20-ton capacity currently costs between Rs19,000 and Rs22,000. The cost stood at about Rs8,000 a few years ago, he added.