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| Pakistan asks Kenya to help curb tea smuggling under ATT |
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Sunday, July 05, 2009
By Aftab Maken
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has requested the Kenyan diplomats in Islamabad to provide the list of tea importers under ATT to curb the menace of smuggling and also to ensure the quality of the Kenyan tea in Pakistani market, The News learnt on Saturday.
The Kenyan authorities have complained to their Pakistani counterparts at the commerce minister’s office during a meeting the other day that the imported Kenyan blend is not being marketed and it is mixed with some inferior brands in the open market, an official quoted the Kenyan diplomats as saying in a meeting with Commerce Minister Makhdoom Amin Fahim.
According to a report the tea imported under ATT facility will make its way into Pakistan by the smugglers, causing a revenue loss of Rs203.4 million to the government of Pakistan. The legal tea importers will pay 36 per cent duty and incur other expenses at $3 per kg while smugglers will pay nothing.
It may be noted that tea imported under ATT has recorded a jump of 260 per cent over the last year. According to Tea Board of Kenya, Afghanistan has imported 3.4 million kilograms under ATT during March at an average price of $2.53 per kg, while Pakistan’s imports were estimated at 3.4 million kilo at an average of $2.22 per kg
The Pakistan Tea Association (PTA) said the tea that came into Pakistan under the ATT either did not find its way to Afghanistan or returned from there through illegal channels.
The association further challenged that although black tea is not consumed in Afghanistan it has imported a huge quantity of black tea.
Kenya and Pakistan agreed to check this menace by taking stringent measures by providing data of tea imported and exporters for making sure that best quality Kenya blend should be available in Pakistani markets, another official of the commerce ministry present in the meeting told this correspondent.
Tea smuggling has been increasing since Pakistan included the commodity in the Afghan Transit Trade Agreement in 2004. One of the major reasons of tea smuggling under the pretext of ATTA is that the cost of bringing the commodity has come down.
Only in March 2009, Afghanistan imported 3,445 tonnes of tea against 955 tonnes in March 2008 whereas Pakistan imported 3,431 tonnes of tea in March 2009 compared to 2,473 tonnes in the same month last year.
Afghanistan tops in terms of annual growth in tea imports among 35 tea importers of the world. Its imports surged over 260 per cent in 2009 compared to the previous year.
However, annual growth in Pakistan’s tea import was 38 per cent in March compared to the same month the previous year, reveals official tea import figures.
The official told the visiting diplomats that both Afghanistan and Pakistan are already in talks to further tighten the slippage of tea and other imported goods under ATT and making the system more transparent.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
