Pakistan considers imposing tax on Nato supply trucks

[BATMAN]

Asim.. Thats so not true. I understand the corruption angle, and its same everywhere in the subcontinent, but a large % of aid goes into the economy. Even if 50% is gone into leakage, you still have the balance 50% going into economy. On the other hand 100% of Zero is still zero

But Thumbs up for the tax on NATO trucks

No not a single penny leaked from the pockets of corrupt ministers.
However, growth of politicians wealth shows they were pumping 200% of aid to their personal economies.
In last 3 years politicians bought properties in UK and earned British and American passports for themselves and their families.

Now tell me which subcontinent person can claim such a fame?

And now commenting on your last sentence... that was a flame bait!
I wonder how that went un-noticed?
all i can say that Pakistanis like me have exercised restraint for good reasons.

 

[alibaz]

I think that this supply route Drama was a very good move by Pakistan. It might have hurt relationships with US, but would improve immediate and long run relations with Taliban. Also, Pakistan would benefit over a forced US withdrawal over a voluntary withdrawal from Afghanistan.

However, If I was a Pakistani I would actually hope that US remains in Afghanistan as long as possible. Emotions aside, this is what benefits Paksitan. This is what Musharraf wants. Losing billions of dollars in aid and diplomacy leverage over US will be worse than anything that is to be gained (including pride) form US withdrawal.

What do you mean by drama, its a reality and we have all the rights to use it to our benefit. Pakistan desires to have good relations with all forces in Afghanistan but no one can be allowed to just cross over at will.

US should go as early as possible from Afghanistan. Pakistan does not want them there. What aid they are giving is nothing as compared to our losses in WOT. They havn't given us over 50 billion dollars but our losses are more than that.

 

[Zee-Gen]

1) It is hard for me to imagine what kind of roads you had that were damaged due to overloaded trucks !
2) Unless you build world class roads, they are prone to getting damaged from things like rain, normal usage, etc.
3) Why was Pakistan sleeping when the overloaded trucks were actively using the Roads ?
4) WoT was not supposed to affect Pakistan. It is parts of ISI and Army that are supporting extremism despite other parts fighting it. This is one huge confusion. If ISI and Army dedicate to eliminating terrorism, I am sure it can be achievable before US withdrawal.
5) What will happen after US withdrawal ? The world will laugh and point fingers at US for not achieving success in and being defeated by few thousand Islamic militants. What will those militants do after there is no US to resist them ? They will obviously spread towards Pakistan. This is the biggest security threat for Pakistan, not India. Just like many years ago the soviet fighting Mujahideen were supposed to be the "good guys" who have now turned into the "bad guys".
6)Even if we assume your theory is true, it is puny compared to the damage Pakistan would incur if it had not submitted to WoT.
7) You are not accounting corruption, mismanagement, home grown terrorism, unemployment, lack of industrialization, etc. into the equation. Simply blaming USA for all your troubles is easy.

Oh young man you are just confusing yourself in excitement of Pakistan bashing……let me drill some sense in your mind. Your 1st, 2nd and 3rd points are just based on lack of knowledge……keep in mind that these roads were built in accordance with the traffic load of Pakistan. Now imagine your computer chair on which you park yourself daily can sustain up to 90 kg 24/7 for years……..now suddenly you overload it with 100 or 110 kg, imagine what will happen……it will break in 2-3 days, you have to repair it and so on and so on……and this is exactly what is going on here……addition of 400 plus trucks daily of 4/5/6 axle is not a joke and for almost a decade…….even the loss in the from of toll tax is up to 2 billion Rs. that we are not charging them and again and again repairing these roads from our pocket.

What can I say except height of naiveness about your 4th point.

5th, 6th and 7th points are irrelevant.

 

[BATMAN]

As i know all those roads were built from international credits on high markups.
We even took credit to pay markups of initial credits and continued.
Are we going to calculate our transit fees on compound basis the same way we pay for our credits taken to build those services for our partners.
Or are we going to pay debt servicing of our international loans out of flood tax?

another question i understand aid for America because it is our ally but since when we granted the status of ally to India?
Or transit aid to India is purely business? and if yes than how much we have earned from Indian transit trade since last three years.
Can any Indian member help with the figures how much transit aid they have accumulated since last three years? and how much transit aid has been agreed by govt. of Pakistan.... it is totally dark in Indian media over this issue.
i think it is unfair by Indian media for keeping their people in dark about the facts and figures of transit trade via Pakistan.

 

[alibaz]

We should have imposed standard road taxes on these trucks from day one. However its never too late. Now we must impose standard duties and taxes on movement of these trucks and there is nothing abnormal in it rather it was.

 

[BATMAN]

normal road tax is for the tax payers of Pakistan not foreigners running covert smuggling trade and earning finances for their respective economies because it is slump in business.

 

[NWO]

Keyword: considers. Kind of like how they considered closing a NATO route supply for more then a few weeks.

 

[Ahmad]

1) It is hard for me to imagine what kind of roads you had that were damaged due to overloaded trucks !
2) Unless you build world class roads, they are prone to getting damaged from things like rain, normal usage, etc.

It is normal for roads to be damaged if it is used or PERHAPS(just my guess) these roads were never designed to support the types of trucks which are used to carry supply to the NATO. Any road will have an extra cost for the maintenance in its future if it is used regularly, depending on how often it is used. Concret roads which is thinly surfaced with asphalt is initially expensive to build, but they are more reliable and long lasting as long as it is maintained regularly. Asphalt is less expensive but require more maintenance cost in the future.

 

[somebozo]

The American steals from Pakistani public in terms of loss of opportunity and destruction, then keep their profits and offer a margin to corrupt leaders like ghaddari !!

 

[Hyde]

Screw economic aid. Charity should be rejected. This is a business transaction and should have been treated as such from the get go.

No lump sum fees should be taken. Itemize everything and take a profit wherever possible. It will be more fair to the US and to Pakistan as well, transparency - only losers will be corrupt folks, since an itemized bill would make things tougher for them.

oh yeah Business transaction is always 1000 times better than economic aid. From my last post I meant to say, it would be foolish to receive 100 million dollars by imposing tax on these roads in exchange of billion dollars+ that we receive from economic aids.

We are not sure yet how much that tax would be aggregated so I meant to say, we must see our "Chadar" before spreading legs.

 

[somebozo]

Well Pakistani truckers are driving these lorries so business benefit is already being felt...but seriously they should not be tax, transit and insurance exempt! Milk the cow while you can!

 

[alibaz]

When they give aid every thing is accounted for, max of aid money goes back for payment of hardwares, training, expertise and various administrative expenditures then why they shouldn't be taxed as per world's standard norms.

 

[Hyde]

Is there any report suggesting the value of "If this tax is imposed" ?

 

[Vassnti]

Well Pakistani truckers are driving these lorries so business benefit is already being felt...but seriously they should not be tax, transit and insurance exempt! Milk the cow while you can!

I dont know if there is a similar fable in Pakistan but the western version is the goose that laid the golden eggs.

Perhaps the week after closing the roads and 60 trucks being destroyed is not the best time to be talking about more charges on Nato transports?

 

[Von Hölle]

It will be foolish to implement such ..if Pakistan thinks it can arm twist US in matters of money ..they have another thing coming ..US just might deduct this money from billions of dollars of aid its already giving and give it under this new Tax head...so instead of US directly funding projects in Pakistan..it might give the same money to efficient Pakistani govt, under this new tax head.