The Attari integrated check post (ICP) has witnessed a big surge of 132% in imports from Afghanistan as compared to last year.
The ICP, which facilitates India’s trade with Pakistan and Afghanistan and movement of passengers from India to Pakistan and vice-versa, has recorded imports of items worth ₹689.29 crore from the Taliban-ruled country from November 2022 to October 2023 against ₹296.29 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal.
The Land Ports Authority of India (LPAI’s) Attari ICP manager Satish Dhyani said: “This was possible due to increased interest of Indian traders for Afghanistan’s perishable items, including dry fruits. We have also set up a cold-storage facility at the ICP for storing the imported items.”
LAPI manages the ICP’s affairs with the support of immigration, customs and the Border Security Force.
India imports onion, apple, dry fruits, dry dates, gypsum, cement, glass, rock salt and herbs from Afghanistan.
Import of onion from Afghanistan has also gone up as around 15 trucks have been coming daily at the ICP. The reason is considered as the rising onion prices in India. The price of onion is between ₹50 and ₹60 in India.
“A few weeks ago, the daily average of onion trucks coming from Afghanistan was three. Now, we are witnessing more than 15 trucks bringing the commodity daily,” said an official posted at the ICP.
Presently, only import from Afghanistan is allowed through the ICP. The trade between India and Pakistan has been at halt since the Centre abrogated Article 370 in August 2019. Before this, India had increased customs duty from 5% to 200% on all items being imported from Pakistan after the Pulwama attack in February 2019.
Before February 2019, soybean, chicken feed, vegetables, red chillies, plastic dana and plastic yarn were among the other items exported to Afghanistan and Afghanistan through the land border.
