Ministry slaps ban on export of precious stones

Customs seizes large quantity of stones at airport.

ISLAMABAD:

The federal government has slapped a ban on export of all kinds of precious and semi-precious stones, says Atif Rashid Khawaja, Chairman Action Committee of the Peshawar-based All Pakistan Commercial Exporters Association, terming it unfair.

“The ban was imposed by the Ministry of Commerce on January 23 through an unfair decision without taking the exporters into confidence,” he told The Express Tribune.



Though the restriction has blocked shipments of exporters from the entire country, a majority of them are from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa as Peshawar serves as the hub.

According to Khawaja, over 3,000 exporters have lost their business that they have been running for the last 60 years.

A large quantity of precious stones such as Ruby, Emerald, Sapphire, Lapis, Quartz, Tourmaline, Aquamarine and Peridot has been seized and kept by the Pakistan Customs at the Peshawar airport after the imposition of the ban.

Pakistan is one of the leading exporters of precious and semi-precious stones – except for diamond – to the world market, especially to the United States, Thailand and the entire Europe.

The ban came into force after the government issued an SRO in a bid to discourage smuggling of gold to India.

Khawaja said the government’s move was aimed at restricting the export of gold jewellery, which had nothing to do with the export of precious stones. But, he said, the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) had also applied the SRO to the export of precious stones.

Commerce ministry officials, while rejecting the claims of the association, said the SRO also covered the export of precious stones.

Talking to The Express Tribune, an official of the Ministry of Commerce insisted that they had asked the exporters of precious stones to get themselves registered with the TDAP after depositing Rs30,000 as registration fee.

“Exports will not be allowed without registration, which will be renewable after every three years,” the official declared.

However, the exporters were not willing to accept the condition, believing that the fee would pave the way for the levy of general sales tax (GST) on the export of precious stones, which Khawaja called unlawful.

He said the country had earned millions of dollars annually with the export of precious stones. “Now, the country will lose this foreign exchange due to the curb on export. It will also encourage smuggling of precious stones through Afghanistan,” he added.

Khawaja warned of a strong protest against the ban in a bid to force the ministry to lift all restrictions. “Exporters at a recent meeting in Peshawar have expressed strong resentment and decided to stage a sit-in in front of provincial assemblies and the national parliament,” he said.

Citing the example of India, he said its exporters of precious stones were earning billions of dollars as Delhi had offered them a host of facilities, but in Pakistan the industry was being discouraged which would have a negative impact on its export earnings.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 4^th, 2014.

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