LAHORE – Vegetable exporters and traders have not received relief in the embargo on onion exports through land route, as dialogue between the federal secretary commerce and representatives of vegetable exporters failed on Friday.
Sources privy to the meeting disclosed that the federal secretary commerce had asked the vegetable exporters to provide letters from the chief collector customs indicating that the onion orders were booked before the imposition of ban and that payments had been made by Indian importers. Speaking to Pakistan Today, leading vegetable exporter Khalil Bhatti said that the federal government was deploying delaying tactics. He said federal secretary commerce cited that once he received the letter from the chief collector customs, he would send a summary to the prime minister for an exception to be made on those orders which have already been processed.
Bhatti said that onions were being freely exported through Karachi, but that the government had put an embargo on Punjab based exporters, which was unjustifiable and condemned in the strongest possible terms. He said that Punjab-based vegetable exporters were only asking the federal government to allow the onion export of already processed quantities.
He stressed that if the government wanted to curtail the onion export from the country it should impose a Regulatory Duty on Export or fixed the Minimum Export Price (MEP) for the commodity. The measure could bring some tax in the public exchequer, he added.
Vegetable exporters said that some 100 to 150 trucks loaded with processed onions were awaiting federal government’s nod to cross border. Vegetable traders said that some 200 trucks of processed onions had been offloaded in the local markets during the last couple of days, as the quality of the commodity was being degenerated.
It is pertinent to mention that the federal government had relaxed the ban on onion export through land route for the shipments processed before January 4. However, not even a single truck could cross Wagha Border after the embargo and no major change was recorded in the price of onion after the ban as the onions were selling at Rs 40 to Rs 45 per kilogram in local vegetable markets.
