Revenue generation: KPCCI supports taxing trade with Afghanistan

Says the tax should be used to rebuild roads damaged by vehicles.

PESHAWAR: The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KPCCI) has decided to support the provincial government’s decision to impose tax on goods transported under the Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA).

In order to generate revenue for the province, the newly-elected government of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf reached a consensus to impose a tax on foreign goods and Pakistani products transported to Afghanistan under APTTA.

“The province needs revenue, the road infrastructure needs to be improved. The government does not have enough resources to spend on infrastructure because the province is already going through many crises,” KPCCI President Dr Muhammad Yusuf Sarwar told The Express Tribune. “We want this to be an infrastructure development tax,” he added.

Sarwar further said, “We have provided valuable road services to Afghanistan since 1947. Our people have received nothing in return except destroyed roads. The money generated via taxation should be spent on the Peshawar-Torkham Road and improving the economic conditions of K-P.”

When asked about the impact of the tax on the local economy and exports to Afghanistan, Dr Sarwar claimed the locals only work as agents. They are only employed in loading and unloading goods, so they will not be affected by it.

The KPCCI believes road infrastructure in the province has been destroyed not just by North Atlantic Treaty Organization supply trucks to Afghanistan, but also due to heavy vehicles carrying export goods to the country from Pakistan, therefore, the top priority should be to reconstruct these roads.

Former president of KPCCI, Sharafat Ali Mubarak, is also of the opinion that the tax would generate revenue for the provincial government and help put an end to smuggling. There are goods which are being smuggled into Pakistan with the help of customs authorities which have a negative impact on local industries, he said. APTTA was signed in 2010 to strengthen trade between Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as to help the landlocked country.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 13^th, 2013.