Missing containers: FTO's report contested

The Pakistan International Freight Forwarders Association (PIFFA) has contested Federal Tax Ombudsman's report regarding pilferage of 7922 containers, saying that the whole report completely relied on a single source of data compiled by terminal operators, industry and customs, official said on Sunday.
They said that the FTO report has not identified the (serial) numbers of 7922 containers from which it arrived at the conclusion of pilferage to Pakistan by saying that "no conclusive results can be drawn without examining each case".
The association stated that only 449 containers, that were showing returning in 5 days or less, needs to be examined and there could be various reasons for the same for destuffing of refrigerated cargo, transportation of loose/bulk cargo in open trucks or Railways and transportation of vehicles, said an official of the PIFFA.
The FTO report is completely based on data supplied by terminal operators stating a reason for not having vested interest, while the rest of parties were not considered by the FTO of having invested interest, said an official of the Customs Department.
"The whole report is full of anomalies. It did not mention container bearing number, and the report was also prejudiced as it did not involve the customs department at any stage by the investigating authority (FTO)", the same official lamented.
The customs department has updated record of cross border certificates and also when the Customs Department analysed the data of terminal operators they reached a different conclusion, another official of the department said.
The PIFFA submitted a signed document stating that the average up and down travel from Karachi-Chaman-Karachi bound containers reaches within 4-5 days while Karachi-Amangarh-Karachi containers reach within 5-6 days, based on the experiences of members engaged in providing logistic service to Afghan Transit Trade by road, said a signed letter of Secretary General of PIFFA, Athar Ahmed.
The methodology adopted for investigation is that the date of return journey of transit containers cleared from terminals was obtained for analysis against the physical impossibility of returning back in less than 12 days without looking into other reasons, said an official of the PIFFA.
It has been estimated on the basis of interviews with lorry drivers that the normal timelines for a written journey (Karachi-Peshawar-Chaman) of a container that carried Afghan Transit goods is 12 days and containers reported/receipted empty by terminal operators in 8 days or less were presumed pilfered, he added. The NLC-largest good carriers-has also endorsed the viewpoint that a private carrier took 6-8 days return journey from Karachi-Peshwar or Chamman and officially communicated that 8 days are normal time for a return journey of a vehicle either from Karachi to Peshawar or Quetta, the same official said.