Plea to issue notification for releasing stuck up cars

Following the growing losses of demurrages and detention on over 9000 new/used cars stuck at ports since October last year, the importers have strongly urged the Ministry of Commerce to issue the notification for the release as decided by the Federal Cabinet.
According to details, the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet in its meeting held on October 6, 2017 decided that the duty and taxes on all vehicles in new/used condition to be imported under transfer of residence, personal baggage or under gift scheme would be paid out of foreign exchange arranged by Pakistan nationals themselves or local recipient supported by bank encashment certificate showing conversion of foreign remittance to local currency.
As a result, the Ministry of Commerce and Textile Ministry on October 23, 2017 with the assistance of State Bank of Pakistan and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) prescribed a mechanism for a payment of duties and taxes on the import of new or used vehicles under personal baggage, transfer of residence and gift scheme, instructing the customs department to collect duty and taxes in foreign exchange arranged by Pakistani nationals or local recipient supported by bank encashment certificate showing conversion of local currency.
However, the same has caused to suspend the clearance of over 9000 new and used vehicles which are stuck at ports, blocking the utilization of around Rs 12 billion government revenue, forcing the Pakistan customs to strongly recommend its authorities concerned for the release of these vehicles in accordance with SRO 1067(I)/2017 and SRO 1237(I)/2017 on production of Bank Encashment Certificate without mentioning bank account number of the importer or any family member in respect of Bill of Lading issued before January 9, 2018. This recommendation was also endorsed by Commerce Division, which has also forwarded the summary to the ECC regarding the enforcement of new requirement on import of vehicles to revert to the earlier mechanism.
Later, the Federal Cabinet has also considered the recommendation of Commerce Division and directed the authorities concerned to issue policy in this regard with no delay. However, one of the leading importers Rashid Awan, owner of MDK Corporation informed that the Ministry of Commerce had so far not issued notification to revert the earlier mechanism as per its own recommendation, which he termed as incomprehensible.
"Due to delay in the issuance of notification, the importers are not only facing serious financial losses in terms of demurrages and detention but FBR is also unable to collect around Rs 12 billion revenue, which could have been utilized if over 9000 vehicles were cleared," he said.
Awan said that since October last year, the clearance of imported vehicles were suspended that blocked around Rs 20 billion investments of the importers besides providing them around Rs 350 million additional financial loss on account of demurrages and detentions.
He said that although they were contributing over Rs 90 billion to the national economy through duty and taxes, the government appeared toothless to channelize the imports of new and used vehicles through comprehensive policy and urged the commerce ministry to look into the matter as around 0.5 million workers were seemingly jobless during last four months.