KARACHI: President of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) Mohammed Tariq Yousuf has praised the government for waiving the demurrage and port charges on all containers stranded at ports, but expressed the hope that a minister’s appeal to shipping companies, freight forwarders and port handlers to waive their charges would also be taken into consideration because relinquishing only the demurrage and port charges would not make much of a difference.
The KCCI president said it is heartening to see that the meeting held to discuss the pressing issue, which was jointly chaired by Minister for Maritime Affairs Faisal Sabzwari and Commerce Minister Naveed Qamar, was also attended by such key stakeholders as Commerce Secretary Sualeh Faruqui, Chief Executive Officer of TDAP Zubair Motiwala, KCCI’s Senior Vice President Touseef Ahmed, Vice President Haris Agar, representatives of the FPCCI and shipping lines besides senior officials of the State Bank of Pakistan and Federal Board of Revenue.
After threadbare discussions, they agreed to provide relief to the business community. However, there are still a few issues that need to be amicably resolved so that trade and economic activities could continue smoothly in the larger interest of the country, said the KCCI chief.
He pointed out that in some cases for Sight LCs, formality of Financial Instrument (FI) has already been completed but the commercial banks are tarnishing the country’s image by delaying release of documents, which is resulting in unnecessary demurrage and detention charges in addition to jeopardising bilateral trade relations.
“The State Bank has approved import funding from outside Pakistan for all the businesses that can avail such facilities, whether through sister concerns or through those suppliers who can manage long-term credit but the businesses need firm assurances that the government will not file any ‘contravention’ against them at a later stage,” he said.
Tariq Yousuf further suggested that for all cargoes stuck at the ports and their documents in the banks, whether on 60- or 180-day payment period, the payment maturity needs to be from the date of B/L, (and) not from the date of release of cargo. “We need a clear directive for incoming shipments that they will also be timely released, otherwise all the current stocks will be hoarded by local businesses to attain maximum profits that would further worsen the inflation position.”
He was of the view that the banks should be bound to process all cases of sections 84 and 85 approved by the State Bank before January 5, 2023 as soon as possible, whereas every LC should be entertained without prejudice and delays as these have already been opened with the approval of the central bank.
“Immediate exemption is required for anaesthesia drugs and all lifesaving medicines and devices so that all private and government hospitals could undertake surgical operations without any interruption, as unavailability of desperately needed drugs may result in loss of precious lives.”
He further stressed that the disparity between open market and interbank rates was pushing remittances towards the black market, which problem needs special attention and a result-oriented plan of action.
“At the meeting, Chief Executive of TDAP Zubair Motiwala rightly stressed the need for having an Import Policy for the future; otherwise, we would remain apprehensive about our exports. Although everyone wants to enhance exports to overcome the trade deficit but these would remain depressed due to a lack of a faultless Import Policy,” said the KCCI president. “Clearing the containers only would not severe the purpose, it should be coupled with a future Import Policy.”
He emphasised that the problem of clearing the containers was one of priority but the topmost priority should be to keep the wheels of the industries running, and for that purpose future importation of essential raw materials and other items should continue without any loss of time, otherwise the supply chain (which is the most important one in a production line) would be hampered.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023