PESHAWAR: The Federal Board of Revenue has increased Redemption Duties of eatable things after which hundreds of trucks remained stroked on both sides of Torkham Border.
The FBR earlier had imposed RD on above 700 items after which protests have been announced by importers throughout country against the increase in the RD of eatable things.
The RD on one kilo grapes has been increased to Rs 28 per kg which have caused serious issues for the importers community due to which the trucks remained stranded on Torkham Border to cross the border. The amount of tax has been increased from Rs 20, 0000 to Rs 70, 0000 per vehicle which will bring certain fall in the exports and exports of fruits to Afghanistan.
Speaking with Customs Today the President All Customs Clearing agents Hidayat Ullah Shinwari said on Thursday that the imposition of RD will further increase the suffering of importers. The importers of these goods had been under pressure of large taxes and the recent step taken by FBR will further increase the pressure on them.
The president further said that there has been drastic increase in the RD for which the importers have been not consulted by FBR before taking such a big decision.
The president KP union of traders Sharafat Ali Khan has termed it a very hard decision which will increase the routine of smuggling in order to avoid such a big amount of duty imposed by FBR. He added that it will increase inflation because the importers will have to meet the expenditure for which they will to count extra money from the consumers.
Speaking further he called upon the government to reconsider the decision to apply RD on these eatable items because most of the trade activities carried out on Torkham Border deals with import/export of fruits and vegetables.
The recent activity of Government will further decrease the trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan which have already been under very hard times and the business remained upto 1 billion per year than 2.5 billion.
