Halting : Gemstone business not so attractive after ban on exports

An order was issued asking exporters to pay Rs30,000 to trade development authority for passbook.

PESHAWAR: For the gemstone exporters of the province, the government’s order to register with the country’s trade development authority is affecting their livelihood.

The Ministry of Commerce issued an order on January 23, banning export of all kinds of precious and semi-precious stones. An official of the commerce ministry, however, said they asked the exporters to get themselves registered with the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan after depositing Rs30,000 as registration fee and a Rs15,000 renewal fee without which they cannot trade with other countries.



“The order has ended our contract with foreign importers which is not only adversely affecting our business, it is also incurring a loss of millions to the national exchequer,” said Rashid Qadeer Baloch, chairman of All Pakistan Commercial Exporter Association (APCEA).

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) is the leading producer of precious and semi-precious stones and for the feeble economy of the province, the importance of these stones cannot be emphasised enough. The exporters said around $121.48 million worth of stones have been exported from 1996 to 2013, with a large contribution from K-P due to the availability of a vast variety of stones.

Hazara, Swat, Kohistan, Mardan are among the areas where rich deposits of such stones are available. Over 200 exporters, out of the 3,500 exporters in the country registered with APCEA, are from Peshawar alone.



“Keeping the current situation in view and the restriction on our exports, the business has had a huge setback,” said Ziaul Haq Sarhadi, former chairman Gems and Gemological Institute of Pakistan. He added that for them the destination is only the international markets as demand in the local market is next to negligible. “Acquiring the passbook was earlier limited to only the export of gold and jewellery,” he said.

“Our gem market in Namak Mandi has international recognition. We have sent stones to India, Singapore and other parts of the world where it is processed and made into jewellery. Now, even if a person exports five kilogrammes of stones, he has to get the passbook.” He added that this is like a ban on their earning as there has been no business for a month.

He said the exporters had given the government three days to withdraw the notification but so far, they have not received any response.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 5^th, 2014.