(MENAFN- Pajhwok Afghan News)
(Pajhwok): Ambassador to Hazrat Omar Zakhelwal has promised to discuss the increase in customs duty on Afghan goods with the authorities in Islamabad this week.
Zakhelwal held out the promise to a delegation of Afghan businessmen who called on him in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital.
The ambassador he said would talk with Pakistani officials and would ask them to reduce or eliminate the duty on Afghan goods.
A statement from the Pakistani Embassy in Kabul said Islamabad had increased import duty on 430 items.
The surge in custom duty from 20 to 50 percent is levied on fruits, electronic items, vegetable, flour, cars and luxury items.
'The government of Pakistan has freshly levied Regulatory Duty on about 301 new tariff lines products and also raised rates on already existing 430 items being imported from all over the . The regulatory duty imposed is between 20-50% on different items including wheat, sugar, vegetables, fruits, electronics, cars and many other luxury items. The new regulatory duty will come into effect from 17th October 2017,' the statement said.
Earlier, Khan Jan Alokozai, deputy head of the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Industries, had told reporters in Kabul that Pakistan increased its custom duties on around 700 types of imported goods after the neighboring country's revenues declined.
Fresh and dried fruits, carpets, vegetable, herbal, coal, precious and semi-precious stones are among goods exported to Pakistan from Afghanistan. All these items come under the new Pakistani policy.
Pakistan earlier charged 8,000 rupees as import tax on per tonne of grapes but increased it to 28,000 rupees and on pomegranates from 8,000 rupees to 21,000 rupees, Alokozai said.
He said Pakistan had recently provided some facilities to Afghan traders along the . He said Pakistani businessmen imported 133,000 tonnes of fresh fruits from Afghanistan.
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