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Srinagar, March 24 (KMS): In occupied Kashmir, despite various hurdles facing traders, the trade across the Line of Control through Salamabad on the Baramulla-Muzaffarabad route has broken the previous records in terms of import and export value of goods in the current financial year.

Till last week, goods worth over Rs 588 crore (combined Indian and Pakistani currency) had been traded via this route. The total value of traded goods stood at Rs 426 crore in the last fiscal year.

Nazir Ahmad Baba, Custodian Officer, Salamabad, in a media interview said that the total export and import value of traded goods so far this financial year stood at Rs 221.27 crore and Rs 367.02 crore (in Indian and Pakistani currency), respectively. The figures of the value of traded goods have witnessed a significant increase despite many concerns raised by the LoC traders, who claimed that the puppet administration had not done much to expand the trade after it was started in October 2008.

Since the start of the trade in 2005 on the basis of two days per week, goods worth Rs 450.91 crore have been exported to Pakistan from the occupied territory, while goods worth Rs 719.87 crore (Pakistani currency) have been imported.

The main demands of the traders, who are still doing business through the age-old barter system, are yet to be fulfilled. Their demands include setting up of proper banking and communication facilities, exemption from the purview of value added tax (VAT) and expansion of list of items that can be traded. On November 15, 2011, the number of trading days per week was increased from two to four.

Besides Salamabad, which is located at Uri in Baramulla district of the occupied territory, the LoC trade is also done through Chakan-da-Bagh in Poonch district of the Jammu region.