Badish Jindal, National President, National Chairman: FASII President: FOPSIA said in a statement During the Lok Sabha elections, BJP candidates had promised businessmen that if BJP forms the government at the centre, trade with Pakistan will soon be started via Wagah. It was also told that in preparation for this, an expressway is being built till Wagah border. Now that the government has been formed, the government should fulfil this promise as soon as possible. Today, Punjabs industries are lagging behind rapidly. Iron and other products are getting expensive here due to being far from the port and today making bicycles, sewing machines, machine tools, auto parts and fasteners in Punjab is becoming a loss-making deal. Punjab being adjacent to the border of Pakistan is also pushing it back from business opportunities because being a border state, big companies are shying away from investing here. Today Punjab has become completely dependent on agriculture and people here are preferring to invest in other states instead of Punjab. Iron goods, tractors, combines, bicycles, sewing machines, medicines, hand tools and machinery made in Punjab are in great demand in Pakistan. Iron costs Rs 71000 per ton in Pakistans Punjab while in Indias Punjab it costs Rs 55000 per ton. Similarly, bicycle costs Rs 4000, sewing machine Rs 3500, basic T-shirt Rs 400, tractor costs Rs 6 lakh to 13 lakh and combine costs more than 20 lakh. In such a situation, Pakistan can become a big market for the industries here. In 2019, the Indian government imposed an import duty of 200 percent on Pakistani products in protest against Pulwama, but despite this, exports from India to Pakistan have increased by 96 percent in the last year. In the year 2022-23, exports from India to Pakistan were 5019 crores, which has increased to 9863 crores in the year 2023-24. The main exports include sugar worth 670 crores, animal feed worth 358 crores, chemicals and tar worth 6900 crores, clothes worth 160 crores and medicines worth 888 crores. In the year 2018-19, exports to Pakistan were 14426 crores, which was 0.62 percent of the countrys total exports, but now it has remained only less than 0.27 percent of Indias total exports. Due to the imposition of heavy import duty, exports from Pakistan to India have come down from 157 crores to only 23 crores. In this way, business with Pakistan is more beneficial for India. Pakistan is exempted from import duty in most countries due to being below the poverty line. Therefore, Indian businessmen can use Pakistan for their exports to other countries. Most of the Chinese (Govt. of India Recognized) FOPSIA companies have opened their businesses in Pakistan to take advantage of this policy. Through Pakistan, the countrys businessmen can also do business with Russia, Europe and Arab countries by road, which is a profitable deal for Indian businessmen. Today, the situation has changed in Pakistan too. Its Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, who is also a former Finance Minister, had stressed on the issue of India-Pakistan trade in a press conference and highlighted the concerns of the business community of Pakistan. Dar had also told the journalists that he has already started internal talks with the Commerce Department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Dar had also said that Pakistan has to import goods from India through third countries which is very expensive, in such a situation, India should also worry about its businessmen and sign a free trade agreement with Pakistan as soon as possible. In this regard, FOPSIA has written a letter to all the Lok Sabha members of Punjab demanding that they should demand from the Centre to sign a Free Trade Agreement with Pakistan as soon as possible to save the industries of Punjab so that the industries of Punjab can be saved from being destroyed.
Jagrati Lahar is an English, Hindi and Punjabi language news paper as well as web portal. Since its launch, Jagrati Lahar has created a niche for itself for true and fast reporting among its readers in India.
Gautam Jalandhari (Editor)
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