KARACHI – For the first time Sindh government has imposed tax on the goods to be traded under the recently signed Pak-Afghan Transit Trade Agreement, it has been reliably learnt. The new levy will be collected at the rate of 0.5 percent of the value of the consignment as the Infrastructure Cess, to be charged on the export/imports of PATTA goods from Karachi by air or by sea, well-placed sources told Pakistan Today.
Previously, the consignment of goods traded under the Pak-Afghan Transit Trade Agreement was exempted from the levy of tax by the federal/provincial government. Since 1980, the Afghan trucks were allowed to move up to the Torkham border but under the new agreement they will also be allowed access up to Wagha border, in Lahore. In return, Pakistani trucks would be allowed to go through Afghanistan to the Central Asian Republics and Iran, they said.
However, after the signing of the new transit trade agreement between Pakistan and Pakistan in October 2010, the Sindh government had thoroughly gone through the new pact, which according to sources, allows the Sindh to collect the infrastructure cess.
Director General Excise and Taxation Sindh Shoaib Siddiqui told Pakistan Today that the excise and taxation officials had been instructed to work out a plan immediately regarding collection of the new levy. Sindh Minister for Excise and Taxation Mukesh Kumar Chawla also mentioned the same in a press conference.
