LAHORE: Importer and member of Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industries (LCCI) Sheikh Masood Sultan has said that India will face a revenue shortage of $5 million after ban on tea export to Pakistan because Pakistan is importing huge quantity of tea from India since 2007.
While exclusively talking to Customs Today, Sheikh Masood Sultan said that in 2018, Pakistan had imported 15.83 million kilograms tea from India, 7.43 percent more than the previous year.
Pakistan had recorded a massive 35.8 percent increase in per capita consumption of tea between 2007 and 2016, according the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Currently, Pakistanis consume 172,911 tons of black tea and it’s expected to rise to 250,755 tonnes by 2027. In coming days rates of tea are expected to increase as India has stopped their export to Pakistan.
India had accorded most favoured nation status to all WTO members, including Pakistan, in accordance with provisions of Article 1 of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, 1994.
Masood Sultan said, “Nearly 80 percent of the tea imported by Pakistan is coming from India so tea sector can face shortage in coming days but Pakistan can import from Sri Lanka and African countries as well”.
