Afghan crisis: Dry fruit import through ICP continues as usual
AMRITSAR : With the situation in Afghanistan in a flux, import from the war-torn country to India via the Attari-Wagah border continues to be stable and remains unaffected. On Tuesday, 20 trucks carrying dry fruit from Afghanistan arrived at the Attari Integrated Check Post (ICP), which facilitates India’s trade with Pakistan and Afghanistan.
“On Monday, 21 trucks arrived at the ICP, with 20 on Tuesday. To date, There is no indication of any halt in import from the war-torn country,” said a senior official of the Land Ports Authority of India (LPAI), which manages the ICP’s affairs.
ICP manager Sukhdev Singh said trade has not seen a dip due to the happenings in Afghanistan; sources added that 20 trucks with dry fruit has arrived at the ICP on Saturday as well, but Customs officials had to send back some of these due to inadequate space.
An official posted at the ICP said, “The Customs has also increased its security since Taliban seized control of Afghanistan. Officials have been conducting 100% search of items being imported.”
Indian and Afghan traders, however, are worried over trade prospects and hope that the regime change, enforced through bloodshed, does not cast a shadow on trade.
“We hope that the trade between the countries will continue as usual, as has been the case till today. There was some speculation that the Taliban had sealed both Chaman and Torkham borders with Pakistan. We are in touch with our counterparts in Afghanistan. They are also worried, but are hope like us that the crises does not affect trade,” said Anil Mehra, president, Federation of Karyana and Dry Fruit Association.
He added, “The festival season is approaching and there will be high demand for dry fruit in India. If dry fruit import to India continues, prices will come down. There is a bumper crop of dry fruit in Afghanistan this year. Afghan traders are sending their items uninterrupted, even though there has been an issue kin sending them payments due to closure of banks there.”
In 2019-20, the ICP had recorded a business of Rs 2,767 crore, which dipped to Rs 2,500 crore in 2020-21. Prior to this, the ICP had been recording a trade value between Rs 4,000 crore and Rs 5,000 crore trade a year.
Trade at the ICP has been dipping since the Pulwama terror attack of February 2019, in which 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were killed. After the attack, India had increased duty on items imported from Pakistan from 5% to 200%.