Pakistan is drawing up plans to tax Nato for using its territory to supply troops in Afghanistan, in retaliation for the recent death of its soldiers in a “friendly fire” incident on the border.
Under the proposal, a transit tax or fee will be imposed on every shipping container sent through Pakistan, senior military and civilian officials have told. The move follows the death of 24 soldiers shelled by a US helicopter at a checkpoint last month.
The tax is likely to add tens of millions of dollars a year to the cost of the decade-long war.
It is thought that the government would levy around $1,500 per shipping container sent through Pakistan, along with separate charges for each fuel tanker that goes through to Afghanistan. Islamabad suspended the movement of Nato supplies to the landlocked country altogether after the deaths on 26 November.