He said the system would be launched under the umbrella of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and the Pakistan Customs would lead it. The system would connect 40 different government departments. He said investor either foreign or local would get access to these government departments through single click. He tempted to have a system, which would not only ease doing business but also allow monitoring of whole process and progress of departments, which would later be discussed in the steering committee meetings. He added that customs department has requested the Prime Minister to chair the committee.
Khokhar further said the government had financial support from the World Bank for the system and hoped that the system would help regain investor confidence. Earlier, he said the customs department was of the view that terminals were not fully equipped to handle cargos that led examination delay to 5 days, which eventually resulted in port congestion. However, CEO KPT depicted a different picture on this issue, which forced him to recheck the departmental facts.
Member Customs further said that law must be amended and restrict the terminals to ground containers within 36 hours for examination and if they didn't so, punitive measures would be taken against the terminals. He also admitted that customs department was unable to auction unclaimed containers in an effective manner, appreciating the proposal given by chairman APCAA to conduct auction through video link, which would help maintaining transparency and effectiveness in the auction process.
Khokhar said that Pakistan Customs was in support of establishing separate off-dock customs' terminal for scrap consignments at Maripur area and asked the APCAA and other stakeholders to come forward to hold discussion in this connection. He also apprised that customs department was planning to introduce tracking system for all inward and outward cargos by next fiscal year and the license for installing tracking system would be awarded through open tender.
He said that there would be no need of bounded carriers in future because train cargo service from Karachi port to Lahore dry port was in the cards; adding that scanners utilisation must be increased to eradicate port congestion. Arshad Jamal, senior vice chairman APCAA said that port congestion issue persisted for long but no government in past bothered to resolve it; adding that over 5000 unclaimed containers of banned items including PVC scrap, tire scrap, etc were lying at different ports of the country and customs department remained unable to take action for its disposal despite having clear instructions under section 19 of Import Policy Order (IPO) 2016, which stated that "all goods of banned list imported in commercial quantity shall not be released in any circumstances. Such goods shall be re-exported at importers or shipping lines' cost."
He said that online auction could be possible but it needed special module in the system; adding that terminals were also ready to establish off-dock terminals with all facilities in this regard and urged the customs department to take suitable measures to facilitate the trade at maximum.
Arshad proposed to shift Afghan Transit Cargo to Gwadar port to minimise the transportation cost of the importers, which would also help easing the port and the city's traffic as well. He urged the customs department to make amendment in the WeBOC system to display valuation rulings on the screen of the users; requesting the member customs to increase the workforce at AFU for swift consignment clearance.
Ali Mardan Abbasi CEO Karachi Port Trust said that around 122000 auction containers were lying at different terminals of KPT, which he termed as major reason for port congestion and urged the member customs to take notice and resolve port congestion issue. Jam Madad provincial legislator said that federal and provincial government should resolve trade related issues on immediate basis. He also offered his support to APCAA in order to table their issues before Chief Minister and other concerned provincial authorities. Chairman APCAA Chaudhry Amjad also spoke on the occasion.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017