NEW DELHI: Import and export of merchandise through the integrated check-post at the India-Pakistan international border (IB) has dipped considerably in the last two months.
Festive season and the intense cold wave in north India have failed to lift the sluggish demand for dry fruit from Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Sources in the Customs Department intimated that about 20 trucks of dry fruit used to arrive daily from Afghanistan and Pakistan. Daily arrival of dry fruit trucks have come down to 12-14 trucks.
Among the imported items, the maximum share is of cement. About 40 truckloads of cement used to be imported from Pakistan. Now, the number has come down to between 25 to 30 trucks.
Similarly, the export of soyabean to Pakistan plummeted to 100 truckloads in a month against 400 of these that used to come every month.
Officials in the Customs Department stated that there was about 35 per cent fall in the exchange of commodities from the Integrated Check Post (ICP) at Attari. However, it does not translate verbatim in terms of revenue which fell by about 10 per cent. Increase in the rate of dollar in the international market proportionately hiked the customs duty.
They shared that since soyabean has a long shelf life, it may have been stored by the Pakistan based traders. Besides, they said it had become known that there was a shortfall of some crops in Pakistan.
One of the leading importers at the ICP, Rajan Bedi, said the nearly month-long protests against the sacrilege and desecration of Guru Granth Sahib across the state hit the movement of cargo. Many pending orders were cancelled causing immense loss to the traders.
He said most stock of dry fruit was delivered at markets in Delhi which further supply it to the rest of the country. Besides, the cement imported from Pakistan was supplied to Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab.
The decline in placing of orders for these two commodities expose the recessionary trends and sluggishness in the economy. On the other hand, the rising value of dollar against the Indian rupee was jacking up their investment.
