PAJCCI welcomes amendment in SROs to facilitate Pak-Afghan transit trade

PESHAWAR: The Pak-Afghan Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PAJCCI) has welcomed recent amendments to several statutory regulatory orders (SROs) by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), aimed at easing transit trade and promoting commercial ties between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

In a statement issued here on Saturday, Senior Vice President (SVP) PAJCCI Zia-ul-Haq Sarhadi lauded the FBR’s decision, expressing hope that the revised regulations will not only enhance bilateral trade but also reduce barriers for the trading community.

Sarhadi explained that one major amendment reinstates the option of using Insurance Guarantee alongside the Bank Guarantee for goods transported under the Afghan Transit Trade agreement.

The earlier decision of October 2023 restricted traders solely to Bank Guarantees and placed a significant financial burden on them. The restoration of choice is a welcome relief for the business community, he said.

Regarding other amendment, Zia said it was about implementation of 10 per cent processing fees on few items being imported under Afghan Transit Trade. The decision has been revised and several items have been exempted from 10 per cent processing duty that will also have a positive impact on regional trade, Zia elaborates.

The third SRO pertained to ‘Negative List’ comprising of around 200 items out of which several have been excluded from the list, Zia added.

“These are positive decisions which will prove beneficial for Pak-Afghan trade in the longer run”, Zia commented. He said the earlier decisions had diverted a lot of Pak-Afghan trade to Iranian ports including Cha Bahar and Bandar Abbbas.

However now, he continued, hopefully the trading community of Afghanistan will come back to sea ports of Pakistan. SVP PAJCCI also urged for further relaxations in Pak-Afghan trade conditions for promotion of bilateral and regional trade. He said ban on imports of several items in Afghan transit trade is implemented over a plea that these items come back into our markets and affects local production.

Zia insisted over making border security and vigilance more stricter to plug smuggling instead of imposing ban on import of several items. Furthermore, he added, hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees have repatriated to their motherland in wake of new policy of Pakistan, ensuing in increase in import of goods for Afghanistan under transit trade facility. The PAJCCI office bearer also criticised imposition of 0.2 per cent Infrastructure Development Cess (IDC) by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on export of items to Afghanistan.

He said the IDC has been slashed to 0.1 per cent by the KP government, but the decision has badly affected Pak-Afghan trade by shifting the business to Balochistan province, rendering thousands of KP dwellers associated with Pak-Afghan trade as jobless.