APTTA goods clearance demonstration in Karachi today

Pakistani customs authorities would give practical demonstration of clearance of transit trade consignments at Karachi Port to Afghan customs officials/traders on Wednesday (September 28) under the Afghanistan Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA).
In this connection, a high level delegation of Afghan customs officials convened a meeting with FBR Member Customs Mumtaz Haider Rizvi here at the FBR Headquarters on Tuesday. Sources told Business Recorder that a delegation of Afghan customs officials visited the FBR House to have an update on the decisions taken in the Inter-Ministerial Meeting on the implementation of the APTTA. It has been decided that the Afghan delegation would visit the Karachi Port and practically witness the clearance of imported consignments under the APTTA.
For this purpose, the delegation of Afghan customs officials reached Karachi late Tuesday night. Afghan customs authorities and traders would go through the step-wise procedure of transit trade consignments clearance at Karachi Port in the presence of Pakistani customs officials. The purpose of the whole exercise is to remove bottleneck in smooth clearance of consignments under the APTTA.
The problems would be resolved on the spot in case specifically mentioned by the Afghan customs officials during this visit to Karachi Port. Following visit of the Afghan customs officials to the Karachi Port, another meeting would be convened at the FBR House on Thursday (tomorrow) to review the progress on the implementation of the APTTA.
During the last Inter-Ministerial Meeting on the implementation of the APTTA, it was pointed out that the Afghan traders were facing problems in obtaining insurance guarantee from the accredited insurance companies for the release of Afghan cargo from the ports of Pakistan. The cost of the insurance guarantees was very high which was causing increase in the cost of transit. Secondly, the provision of the Agreement required bank guarantees for the Afghan trucks to enter Pakistan to lift the transit goods.
The banks in Afghanistan including Pakistani banks were not willing to provide bank guarantees for the transport units. Thirdly, under the provision of the Agreement, the customs authorities of Pakistan were not allowing trans-shipment/trans-loading at Peshawar and Chaman. Fourthly, Pakistani bonded carriers authorised to transport Afghan transit goods from Pakistani ports were demanding high freight charges.
Furthermore, the bonded carriers did not have the required engine capacity to negotiate high altitude terrain. Resultantly large numbers of Pakistani bonded trucks carrying Afghanistan transit goods were stranded at Peshawar. Fifthly, the Afghan side had reservations regarding the Notification SRO No 601(I)/2011 dated 13.6.2011 issued by the Federal Board of Revenue for the implementation of APTTA-2010. In this regard, the Afghan Government had already provided detailed comments to the Pakistani side. Afghan traders had requested the Pakistani side to consider the comments given by Afghanistan for making the notification complaint to APTTA-2010.