ISLAMABAD, Sept 30: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Thursday ordered withdrawal of the 0.5 per cent infrastructure cess levied by the Sindh government on goods imported under Afghan Transit Trade (ATT).
Addressing a joint press conference, State Minister for Commerce, Hamid Yar Hiraj along with Afghan Deputy Minister for Commerce, Ghulam Nabi Farahi said that prime minister has directed the Sindh government to withdraw the levy on ATT goods through fresh legislation by the provincial assembly.
Pending the withdrawal process, the collection of cess has been stopped with immediate effect, he added. He said the authorities concerned were directed to facilitate the early release of the withheld containers at seaports to avert any possible damage to goods lying at the ports.
Mr Hiraj said that the issue among others was discussed at length during the visit of the Afghan delegation to Islamabad for seeking its early solutions. The government also announced the constitution of a joint working group (JWG) comprising senior officials of the commerce, customs and railway to resolve trade related issues between the two countries.
He said that the government of Pakistan believed that the ATT was in the interest of both the countries and it must be facilitated. The Afghan delegation was assured that the ministry of commerce would hold inter-ministerial meetings on weekly basis with all the ministries concerned to resolve all the issues concerning ATT.
The Afghan deputy minister of commerce has welcomed the decision of the government, and said that it would further increase trade and relation between the two countries.
He also invited Pakistani investors for making investment in Afghanistan, which he said would be fully protected and facilitated. The Afghan minister said that the timely decision would help the Afghan importers from possible loss due to piling up of containers at ports.
Meanwhile, the Afghan delegation in a meeting with Central Board of Revenue (CBR) member customs asked for signing customs cooperation protocol between the two countries. It was agreed that the Afghan government would send a draft of the agreement to Pakistani customs authorities very shortly for holding negotiations on it.
Moreover, a monitoring team of customs officials would be constituted to work out the irritants in the handling of ATT containers at ports. The decision for removal of these irritants would be taken on the report of the monitoring team.
The decision for the withdrawal of the cess was announced following the extensive meetings of a 10-member Afghan trade delegation led by deputy minister of commerce, Ghulam Nabi Farahi and deputy minister of finance and customs, Ghulam Jailani Popal with Pakistani officials in Islamabad.
The Afghan importers have stopped the clearance of their containers at seaports from September 1, 2004 demanding withdrawal of the cess which they believed resulted into increasing price of per container by Rs60,000. Arbab-Afghanistan
APP adds from Karachi: The matter related to Afghan Transit Trade Infrastructure Cess came under consideration at a meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim.
It was informed that it is a compulsory recovery and Sindh government had recovered Rs3.4 billion on this count while overall the annual recovery is estimated at Rs200 million.
It was pointed out that besides trading with various countries of the world, the non-government organisations also send goods from various countries to Afghanistan through Pakistan.
The meeting decided to defer the recovery for Federal Government for three months on goods sent through NGOs which is only 0.5 percent of C&F. This decision will also apply on goods coming through the Consulate.