The local trading community expressed concern over the imposition of Valuation Ruling (VR) on imports from Afghanistan to prevent negative impacts on the national exports.
This was conveyed to the customs authorities during a meeting of the Local Valuation Committee held here with Director Customs Valuation, Karaki, Shafiq Ahmad Tangi in Customs House on Thursday.
The meeting discussed the valuation of imports from Afghanistan including fresh fruit, dry fruit, vegetable, herbs, pulses, poultry, hides, coal and other items to Pakistan.
Briefing the committee, Zia-ul-Haq Sarhadi said the valuation of the imported goods coming from Afghanistan and Iran through Torkham and Chaman was being functional after a market survey conducted through committee constituted by the local collectorate.
He said after further processing, including washing, grading and packing, those imported goods from Afghanistan become value-added products and their forward export earn a handsome foreign exchange and promote the image of Pakistan as importing state.
Therefore, he said the imposition of VR on those goods like in Karachi, Lahore and other cities would bear negative impacts on our trade. He said besides triggering smuggling, the trade activities will also shift to Chah Bahar and Bandar Abbas ports of Iran.
Addressing the meeting, the Director Customs Valuation fully agreed with the recommendations presented by the committee and said he is fully aware of the problems of business community and will take steps with mutual consultations to resolve them.
Besides, Collector Customs Appraisement, Peshawar Ihsan Ali Shah, Additional Collector Customs Appraisement, Peshawar Dr Mohammad Ahsan, Assistant Collector, Customs Torkham Asma Javed Paracha, president, Frontier Customs Agents Group (FCAG), Zia-ul-Haq Sarhadi, Imtiaz Ahmad Ali, the chairman, All Pakistan Commercial Exporters Association (APCEA), Manzoor Elahi also attended the meeting of the Valuation Committee.