Heavy tax by Afghan govt: Transporters continue wheel-jam strike

PESHAWAR: The transporters on Wednesday continued wheel jam strike against the levy of exorbitant taxes on goods transportation to Afghanistan and asked the Afghan authorities to withdraw the increase on the tax. The transporters have been staging a protest near the Haji Camp in Hayatabad for the last two months to force the Afghan authorities to stop receiving huge taxes from transporters.

President Pakistan Afghanistan Goods Transport Association, Javed Kakakhel said the Afghan government has increased the tax on transport of goods to that country. Siffat Ullah Safi, general secretary, said the Afghan authorities were charging over 400,000 afghani on truck carrying 20 tonnes weight and 1 million afghani on truck load carrying 37 tonnes of goods.

He said that the huge increase in the tax on goods was affecting the bilateral trade, business community and transport companies of the two neighbouring countries dearly.

"The trade between the two countries is on a decline due to the increase on taxes on transporters and rendered thousands of people associated with transport and trade jobless. It is akin to economic murder of the businessmen and other people associated with the Pakistan-Afghanistan trade," he added.