Hundred of loaded trucks of sugar stemmed to cross Torkham border

Ahmad Nabi

LANDI KOTAL: About 100 trucks, loaded with export sugar stranded at Torkham border for the last one week after the federal government has imposed ban on export of sugar.

More than 100 loaded trucks of sugar waiting for clearance at Pak-Afghan bordering point at Torkham to transport  it to neighboring Afghanistan but on the other side, the custom department has have declined to clear the commodity owing to central government’s ban on sugar, a a prohibited item for export, said one of the traders at Torkham border. 

The traders related to sugar business resented the policy and said without prior information, prohibition of the export of the item was injustice to them.

One of sugar traders, Kafayat Khan, said that for the last one week his 60 sugar loaded trucks had been stuck at the bordering point because of hurriedly taken decision by the custom officials. He informed that payment of sugar for export had been done along with approval from State Bank and export documents had been finalized but ironically the custom staff in Torkham was unprepared to clear his trucks. 

“Suck kind of immature practices adopt by the custom officials will create trust deficit among the Afghan traders and if the attitude continue, the Afghan businessmen will turn to India, Brazile and other sugar export countries to meet their needs”, he remarked.

He maintained that export of Indian sugar to Afghanistan in transit was in progress without any hurdle while the Pak officials declared ban on export of Pakistani sugar that was a step mother behavior to them.

Nasibullah Shinwari, a custom agent said that the officials asked them to take back the consignments of sugar to its old destinations somewhere in Pakistan that was impossible for them.

 “Neither the truckers are agreed to transport it back to the sugar mills nor the mills owners are interested to refund its rate, $380 per ton to the buyers,” he added. He asked the authorities concerned to revise the ban policy and let the loaded vehicles to cross to Afghanistan and then formulate strategy suitable for the economy of the country.

Chief executive, Khyber Chamber of Commerce and Industry Haji Jaber said that all export documents of the sugar had been completed therefore the government should allow the trucks to move to Afghanistan. The collector had referred the case to Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) for consideration and soon the decision would be made, he hoped.

He urged the authorities concerned to release the Afghanistan bound loaded sugar trucks to encourage the trading activities at the border. 

When the custom official who was not interested to disclose his identity was contacted on the matter, said that the export of sugar was restricted to Afghanistan in the light of the decision of Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) meeting carried out at 10 February, 2020.