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Exporters ask Pakistan to remove taxes on Indian potato

Chandigarh, Aug 27 (PTI) Exporters have asked the Pakistan government to withdraw a host of taxes imposed on Indian potato to boost its supply to the flood-hit country, as they were finding potato export economic unviable in the wake of high taxes. "We demand from the Pakistan government to remove taxes imposed on potato as there is a huge demand for it because of recent floods that hit the country hard," Amritsar-based leading trader Rajdeep Uppal told PTI today. Pakistan, last year, imposed about 48 per cent tax, which constitutes 17 per cent sales tax, 5 per cent income tax, 2 per cent additional sales tax and rest as regulatory tax, on Indian potato. Dubbing it as a major hindrance in potato export, Uppal said that Indian potato was 30-40 per cent cheaper than Pakistani potato in light of floods if taxes are withdrawn. "After taking into account the currency difference, taxes and other expenses, our potato costs Rs 16 a kg while traders in Pakistan are supplying potato after procuring it from cold storage at a price between Rs 15-20 per kg," he said. "If only taxes (on potato) are withdrawn, our potato export will boost significantly as it will be able to compete with potato in local market of Pakistan," he said. After the recent floods, Pakistani traders immediately ordered for the import of Indian potato along with other commodities, which led to surge in its demand. "But when they found that the prices of potatoes were almost same, the demand (for Indian potatoes) also started coming down," pointed out another exporter. Exporters said that for the last two three days, the average number of trucks per day carrying potato have come down from 30 to 5 because of high taxes. Since August, over 1,100 trucks carrying potato, tomato and soybean crossed via Attari-Wagah land route so far and 30 to 40 trucks a day are crossing over to Pakistan. Till July this year, India has exported 1,65,378 tonne of items comprising cotton, soybean, potato and valuing Rs 334.36 crore to Pakistan from Amritsar. India and Pakistan had agreed to start cross border movement of trucks in the month of October 2007 after a gap of sixty years from Attari Check post at Amritsar in India to Wagah border in Pakistan with an intention of boosting bilateral trade.