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Duty on smuggled goods

Traders offer for talks mixed with threats of defiance

IQBAL KHATTAK

ISLAMABAD: Traders, vowing to stay defiant, have mixed talks offer with threat of use of force to make the government backpedal on anti-smuggling campaign that it intends to launch after the deadline expiry.

"We want to sort out the problem. There must be a way out acceptable to the government in general, and traders in particular. If it wants to impose its decisions then we will have no other option but to take up arms," a number of traders, mostly tribals, at Karkhano Market, the hub of smuggled goods on the outskirts of Peshawar, told Business Recorder on Wednesday.

The government, on Thursday last, had announced what it described a "comprehensive plan" to block an estimated Rs 80 billion to Rs 100 billion worth smuggled goods into the country annually, setting traders a three-month deadline to pay taxes or face stern action.

"Not at all," Salam Shinwari, dealing in expensive crockery items, said when asked how worried he was after the issuance of the deadline. "I'm least bothered because the government has nothing to talk to us. If it wants to speak the language of force then we are as armed as they are."

He stopped entertaining shoppers when he was asked to comment on government's determination to fight smuggling till the end. "I'm glad to receive a journalist who wants me to speak about the issue," he said.

"To say that the CBR (Central Board of Revenue) is responsible for encouraging smuggling will not be an exaggeration. Believe me, its irrational taxation police and (pledged) corruption has helped the country produce smugglers," Shinwari said.

"I want to pay taxes, but they (CBR officials) will create so many problems that you (we) will be forced to strike an underhand deal. I'm 20 years in this business and I know the CBR officials very well", he went on to say, as business was usual at around 6,000 shops in more than a dozen markets.

There were little signs that the government's January 13 decision left any mark on trading activity in the markets. Goods were being brought to shops on cart-wheelers from 'bhatais' (stores). There was also no report that price of smuggled goods registered a fall as, what a trader claimed, the business was booming.

"All traders have decided to let the deadline go unnoticed," another bearded trader of electronic goods said. "We have heard so many times of such deadlines. But you will never hear about closure of these markets," Haji Sameen Jan said.

An office-bearer of Karkhano Markets Association urged the government: "Keep hands off tribal traders." He said the markets were the source of living for about 60,000 people. "Where will they go (after the closure)?" he posed the question.

Requesting anonymity, he expressed fear closure of Karkhano Markets would disturb law and order situation in the province. "There will be a sharp increase in crimes and social disorder will grow", said the office-bearer. He reasoned that no shopper would come to these markets once the smuggled goods were taxed.

He also blamed untenable taxes in the country for the demand of foreign made goods. "Even imported items can be got cheaper than local manufactured goods as the latter are too expensive because of taxes", he argued.

However, Customs Department appears hopeful to rid the country of smuggled goods. The setting up of new check-posts yielded some positive results. A trader admitted: "The flow of smuggled goods has been comparatively low for the last two weeks."

A top Customs official told this scribe that this time the traders would get no concession. "We are not against their business. But, like the rest of country, they will have to pay taxes. There is no other way out", the official, wishing not to be named, said.

However, he refused to disclose what steps the government would take if the traders stayed defiant. "We hope the situation will remain under control. The government will peacefully resolve the issue," the Customs official said.

The mushroom growth of popularly known as 'Bara markets' had collapsed the settled area traders' business, beside causing around Rs 25 billion losses to the national exchequer per annum. The Karkhano Markets, bordering Khyber Agency, is spreading at full pace in all the four directions while the number of goods is also on the rise.

Crockery, cloths, electronics, cosmetics and other goods are overflowing in the markets as people, even from Punjab, throng the shops daily in thousands. The dismissed government of Nawaz Sharif also planned to seal the 1,400-km long porous border with Afghanistan in 1997 to stop goods being smuggled into Pakistan. However, the plan did not materialise - for unknown reasons.