ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has designated the Taftan railway station near the Pakistan-Iran border as a land customs facility for import and export clearance, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) said this week, amid efforts to boost Pakistan-Iran trade.
Pakistan and Iran plan to raise their bilateral trade to $10 billion from the existing around $3 billion, with both sides last year signing 12 agreements and memorandums of understanding for cooperation in diverse fields.
The FBR issued a notification declaring the Taftan railway station near the Pakistan-Iran border a customs facility on June 23, the same day Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian arrived in Islamabad on a state visit.
“The Federal Board of Revenue is pleased to declare Railway Station Taftan, measuring 11.75 acres of land, to be a land customs station for the purpose of loading, unloading and clearance of goods or any class of goods imported or to be exported,” the Pakistani revenue authority said.
Taftan is Pakistan’s main land crossing with Iran and has long held strategic importance but has operated below its full capacity due to infrastructure limitations and the lack of comprehensive customs facilities.
The decision to designate the railway station as a land customs facility came after a phone conversation between the heads of the Iranian and Pakistani railways, followed by official correspondence, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported.
The establishment of a railway customs facility is expected to facilitate the movement of goods by rail, reduce transportation costs, speed up customs clearance, and improve cross-border trade, the report said, citing experts.
Earlier this week, Pakistan and Iran agreed to deepen cooperation across trade, agriculture and security at meetings held during President Pezeshkian’s visit to Islamabad, officials said, with Tehran expressing interest in sourcing up to 60 percent of its meat imports from Pakistan.
