KARACHI: "Efforts by the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) and customs to provide trade facilitation are not properly materialized due to weak contribution/participation by other stakeholders, particularly the shipping companies and terminal operators," said Mian Anjum Nisar, president of the FPCCI, while chairing a special meeting to discuss issues related to port and shipping in Pakistan.

He further said that the government must maintain a strong writ to regulate the shipping companies and terminal operators. Khurram Ijaz, vice president of the FPCCI, while convening an interactive session at the FPCCI with the relevant stakeholders, said that the business community had been suffering due to the uncooperative behavior by the shipping lines and private terminal operators for decades.

However, the recent lockdown in the country made it impossible for the traders to survive in such an unsupported regime. He further said that the shipping lines and terminal operators were being regulated by the ministries of port and shipping around the world, but in Pakistan they were under the supervision of the customs, FBR.

In addition he stated that these shipping lines offer maximum facilitation and cooperation to public and private sector in our neighboring countries like India, but the same protocol is not at all given to Pakistan.

He emphasized a long-term solution for such issues and demanded of the authorities to design a multi-stakeholder mechanism based on the international best practices to ease the process for traders. He also suggested the need of a joint regulatory/advisory committee including the representatives of customs, shipping lines, terminal operators and all the stakeholders to resolve these issues amicably.

FPCCI invited the Chief Collector Enforcement Karachi Saifuddin Junejo along with his team comprising Omer Shafique, Additional Collector Customs (Enforcement), Saqif Saeed, Collector Customs (Preventive), Engr. Riyaz Ahmed Memon, Collector Customs Appraisement (East), Jameel Nasir Khan, Collector Custom Appraisement (West), Fawwad Ali Shah, Collector Customs Exports (PMBQ) and Rizwan Bashir, Additional Collector Customs (Exports), to apprise them of the problems confronted by the business community and exporters.

While answering the queries and issues raised by the participants, Saifuddin Junejo said that Pakistan Customs is always available to serve the business community.

Discussing the role of customs as the regulator of shipping lines, he further said that Customs had recently cancelled licenses of a few shipping lines against the complaints received by the traders and were currently in court for the settlement of such matters.

He invited FPCCI to be a party with FBR as intervener in legal cases in which shipping lines have taken stay orders against the relevant amendments in the Finance Bill. He assured Customs' utmost and unbiased cooperation to all the stakeholders relevant to port and shipping.

Shabbir Hassan Mansha, convener of FPCCI standing committee on customs, briefly said that Customs have always endorsed our proposals. However, many of the initiatives for solution of the issues got stuck in the legislation.

Mian Zahid Hussain appreciated the fruitful efforts of the Chairman FBR and assured support of the business community for the promotion of Pakistan's trade around the world.

Saquib Fayyaz Magoon, former vice president FPCCI, said that all the major shipping lines around the world strictly adhere to regulations by the government of respective country. However, the situation seems very different in terms of Pakistan which should be addressed on priority basis.

The session was attended by a large number of representatives from the trade bodies and prominent businessmen as well as representatives of the private terminal operators. The participants of the meeting presented issues of dual charges, delays in grounding, backlog and congestion at the port, excess detention and demurrage charges etc. The participants called for early resolution of the issues to encourage flow of trade activities in the country.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020

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