Textile exporters reject 2 bills prepared by Senate body
KARACHI: The textile exporters have objected to the bills regarding carriage of goods by sea and sea carriage shipping documents, which the Senate standing committee has prepared to amend and update the law through National Assembly to become laws.
Sources in textile sector told Business Recorder on Wednesday that the Senate committee has prepared two bills--Carriage of Goods by Sea bill 2011, and Sea Carriage Shipping Documents bill 2011--for amending and updating through legislation, with a view to make them law, as both are against the interests of both exporters and importers.
"We [textile exporters] have succeeded in time to block these bills at the Senate standing committee and have proposed changes in their texts, replacing words 'any bill' should be meant 'the bill of landing' issued by shipping lines and not 'the one by freight forwarders'," they said.
They said that the importers have even greater reservation on these bills and have demanded of the senators to reword them and provide a shield to the investors, with legal genuine document in line with the global practices in the sea transportation field.
Talking to Business Recorder, Chairman of Pakistan Apparel Forum (PAF), Muhammad Javed Bilwani, said that textile exporters had succeeded to oppose the two key bills, which were meant to shield the anti-trade and anti-textile sector forces.
He said that textile exporters had met with members of Senate standing committee on Sept 26 in Islamabad to apprise them about the issues of the textile sector at export stage with shipping lines and freight forwarding agents. He said the textile representatives told the committee members that it was pertinent to note that main stakeholders were the exporters and importers.
He said an exporter's stake was $100,000 (97 percent) while the stake of shipping company was 2.5 percent, and the freight forwarders' was only 0.2 percent in the whole business of exports.
He said the 'bill of lading', which the shipping companies issue globally, called the genuine bill and transported goods on the basis of such real credentials. He added that even the developed nations like Switzerland, Italy, Taiwan, etc, issue the master bill of lading.
Bilwani said the local freight forwarders have the practice to issue their own bill of landing which is normally known as "house bill of landing", and had no legal status. Therefore, the exporters usually face problems in getting their amount from importers abroad.
He said that the committee was informed that the 'genuine' bill of landing has no separate column in the form for the freight forwarders. Rather, their names should be mentioned in the form's body. He said that according to the legal explanation of the bill, it is an official document by the carrier duly accepting goods for shipment containing information like item, quantity, value, vessel details, date, port, consigner, consignee, etc.
"Most important of all, ulterior motive behind the framing of both these bills is an effort to make 'House Billing of Lading' a legal document. For this reason, in both bills, purposely the words 'any bill of landing', 'Any sea waybill', and 'any ship's delivery order' have been mentioned," he said.
"The primary reason for redrafting of both bills must be to save the exporters/importers - the major stakeholders--from frauds committed due to issuance of 'house bill of lading' by the freight forwarders," he added.
He said that as the shipping company has the authority to issue a bill of lading, the freight forwarder, who is only an agent for the consignment, should be legally bound to issue only a receipt for the goods it would transport.
"These bills come to nothing in terms of legislation, and new drafts will now be drawn up in line with the proposals of textile sector exporters and importers as the next meeting in Islamabad between the main stakeholders and the committee is due sometime soon," Bilwani said.