KARACHI: Pakistan Customs and PICT have resolved congestion issues at PICT through dedicated efforts and round the clock operations to enable smooth trade and facilitation of economic activities. Customs focused on expeditious clearance and smooth operations by operating on six consecutive Sundays as well as extended hours so that trade and economic activities are boosted especially in the backdrop of a resurgent COVID wave and global shipping problems.

The global shipping industry has been plagued with delays that have been caused by disruption of vessel schedules and a shortage of containers.

Recent blockage of the Suez Canal has added to the disruption of the shipping lines schedules and has impacted global supply chains. These reasons had caused congestion at PICT as shipping lines schedules were disturbed and supply chains were disrupted across many different sectors of the economy.

Port congestion causes significant losses to the trading communities and industries and increases dwell times that reduce ease of doing business. The recent weeks saw dedicated efforts of the Customs staff as well as port management at the ports who worked extended hours and weekends to enable smooth clearance of goods for local industries and trading communities to carry out business activities with much more confidence, especially as Ramazan approaches and the demand for goods in the local markets increase. These measures form the course of Pakistan’s efforts to increase business confidence, reduce dwell times and enable Pakistan’s businesses to become competitive on the global stage.—PR

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021