LAHORE, Dec 20: The Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (Minfal) has moved a summary to the finance ministry for the removal of 15 per cent regulatory duty on export of flour to Afghanistan.

According to Minfal sources, in pursuance of the summary, the Central Board of Revenue has convened a meeting of all stakeholders at Islamabad on Wednesday (today) for finalizing the recommendations.

Since the duty was imposed by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz himself last year, the CBR was reluctant to decide the matter on its own, they said. But, it certainly understands the mechanics of the issue and giving a sympathetic hearing to those demanding an end to the duty, they say.

The Pakistan Flour Mills Association is spearheading the campaign against the duty. Majid Abdullah of PFMA says that the duty was imposed when country was facing wheat shortage. That is no more the case, he says, as the country now has surplus stocks and finding it hard to exhaust them. It hardly makes sense to persist with the duty decision even in changed circumstances, he said.

The duty had become an exercise in self-defeat due to topographical realities, he said, as Pakistan had over 200 entry points along Afghan border, and only two of them were being monitored by the authorities for duty purpose. Flour had been pouring into Afghanistan from other 198 points anyway, however small in quantity, he added.

He said Afghanistan was a traditional export market for Pakistani flour which was being lost to Central Asian states because of the duty decision. Afghanistan needed almost 600,000 tons of flour every year and Pakistan provided 400,000 tons of it, which came almost to 1,000 tons a day, he said.