Islamabad – A Pakistani parliamentary committee has proposed the collection of revenue from the containers supplying oil and other goods to NATO forces in Afghanistan, officials said.
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was informed that yesterday 256 containers of NATO travelled on roads in Pakistan to go to Afghanistan through Torkham and are damaging the road infrastructure of the country without paying a single penny as tax or toll tax.
Officials say that nearly 70 per cent of the items are transported through Pakistan for around 160,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan.
Suspected militants regularly launch attacks on NATO lorries in parts of the country in their campaign against the NATO and Pakistani forces.
The US has already signed agreement with Russia for alternate supply route in view of Pakistan’s risky but shortest route.
Last year NATO and Kazakhstan also reached an agreement, allowing the Alliance to supply non-military goods through Kazakh territory to Afghanistan.
In April 2009, Ukraine allowed the US to transport cargo to Afghanistan via its territory. Shortly afterwards, the Uzbek-US agreement opened the way for the transit of non-lethal supplies.
Despite the deal, however, Pakistan will likely continue to serve as a major supply route.
The PAC also expressed serious concerns over the return and sale of goods booked for Afghanistan for NATO and under the Afghan Trade Transit Agreement (ATTA) in the northwestern city of Peshawar, saying the trend was damaging the national economy.
The members held the law enforcement agencies, district administration and customs officials responsible for the smuggling of goods to Pakistan from Afghanistan, a Committee member, Noor Alam said.
Alam suggested summoning the finance minister of the previous government during whose tenure, the NATO containers were allowed to pass through the Pakistani territory. IRNA
