PESHAWAR: With no tax protection, over 170 currency dealers and money changers along the Torkham Border lost 80 percent of their customers due to new border management policy.
Saleem Jan & Brothers, a currency shop owner, said on Thursday he at his Peshawar’s shop, suffered losses incurred to his business due to strict policy adopted by the border management.
He said the currency dealers, doing business on the Torkham border, have suffered huge losses due to sharp decline in the number of Afghan nationals coming to Pakistan.
The dealers of currency at Chowk Yadgar in Peshawar have links with Torkham big-time dealers who give a large amount of Afghani currency to both Pakistani and Afghani transporters for their goods clearance at Afghanistan customs offices along with meeting their personal travel expenses along the Torkham-Kabul Highway, he added.
He further said since Pakistani government has introduced the production of legal travel documents on Torkham border, a prerequisite for all aspiring Afghans for their entry in Pakistan shows decline from 27,000 daily to just 1,400 to 3,000 customers and now that has been reduced to zero, he said.
Saleem Jan & Brothers, a currency dealer, told Customs Today that their daily transaction with transporters ranged from Rs 200000 to almost Rs01million prior to the introduction of border reforms. Saleem Jan said with agreed profit margin the transporters used to give back money in Pakistani rupees on their return from Afghanistan.
“The total volume of our daily trade on Torkham and Chaman was almost Rs12million but now the activity had plunged into Rs15000 or Rs30000 business a day”, he told sadly.
He said around 120 of his friends had abandoned their profession for fear of losses incurred due to new policy.
When inquired from Pak-Afghan Chamber of Commerce about the real situation of loss to the trade, he said we export sugar, rice, dry fruits, fruits, vegetables, cooking oil and electronics including other domestic and commercial products of daily use.
The official said the exports to Afghanistan will bring foreign currency to Pakistan as they pay back the price in dollars instead of rupees. Pakistani rupee is paid for import, so trade with Afghanistan is profitable as this is developing stream of economic wave for cities like Shiekhupura, Faisalabad and other cities of Panjab famous for production of technical products.
He maintained that since long Afghanistan has stopped import of cement due to instability of the Torkham crossing, so it should be remembered that this has caused a huge loss to national exchequer.
