PTA asks government to curb black tea smuggling

The Pakistan Tea Association (PTA) has demanded the government to take fiscal measure to curb black tea smuggling in the country. It also demanded the government to consider tea import under the tariff of food items as the tea is a beverage of poor and common people of the country.
Hamid Saeed Khawaja, Chairman, Pakistan Tea Association (PTA) while speaking at a press conference at his office here on Thursday said that tea has now become essential item for poor people of the country, while the government is not ready to consider this reality and still tea import is treated as luxury item.
He expressed his concerns over the rapid declining of tea imports through legal channel and continuous increasing of tea imports under Afghan Transit Trade Agreement (ATTA).
"This is a continuous threat for legal trade as we, the legal traders had to pay 33 percent in account of taxes and duties on tea import while on the other hand, the total cost of tea import under ATTA is only Rs per kg", he said "Despite offering some incentives to legal tea trade the government has imposed another tax at the rate of 1 percent on the tea import in recent budget". He pointed out the local consumption of tea is 170 million kgs per annum while the legal tea import is only 100 million kgs per year.
On the other hand, the total tea import under ATTA is over 70 million kgs per year. He said that black tea is not consumed in Afghanistan as the people of Afghanistan use green tea and this is a fact that all the black tea being imported under ATTA is being sold out in local market.
In a letter written to the Chairman, CBR, PTA said that black tea imports through ATTA are averaging over 7.1 million kgs per month from Kenya alone. Total legal tea imports according to PTA in the month of May stood at 6.89 million kgs. It is well imagined that the increase in quantum of import of black tea through ATTA which is now averaging more than 7.1 million kgs a month.
"The figures of ATTA which we are providing are not shot in the dark but substantiated with black and white proofs", he said and asked how a genuine importer can survive with all this smuggling?
He requested to reduce the duty taxes in line with the cost of smuggling for the sake of legal tea industry. Khawaja said that the government should realise these facts and should take fiscal measures to resolve this problem to save the local tea trade. At least the government should rationalise tax rates on imports of black tea under ATTA and through the legal channel, he demanded.
Regional Chairman PTA Mohsin M. Saify, former chairman Muhammad Altaf, secretary K. N. A. Farooqui, Sawar Saeed and other leading tea importers were also present on this occasion.