Over 1,000 imported goods containers worth millions of dollar are stuck up at ports for the last two weeks due to delay in the examination by the customs, sources told Business Recorder.
They said that the number of stuck up containers was rapidly increasing due to shortage of examiners and related customs staff, and feared the situation might cause the importers millions of rupee losses. The importers are perplexed over the situation, as some of the importers had received advance payments for delivery to their buyers.
"We were expecting that after the introduction of Custom Administration Reforms (Care), the imported cargo would be released quickly, but this system had created hurdles in the release of cargo," said a leading importer. He said that as per the Care rules, only 20 percent of imported consignments would be selected for the examination (risk management system), while the remaining 80 percent would be released without examination.
As against this rule, over 60-70 percent cargo was being selected for the RMS to examine valuation and under-invoicing, they said, adding the process had resulted in delayed clearance of over 1,000 containers, which were stuck up at Karachi Port and Port Qasim.
"Around 600 containers are stuck up at Karachi International Container Terminal (KICT), some 200 at Pakistan International Container Terminal (PICT) of Karachi port, while around 200 at Qasim International Container Terminal (QICT) of Port Qasim due to delay in examination under the Care system, " confirmed General Secretary of Karachi Custom Agents Association (KCAA) Arshad Jamal.
The stuck up containers had brought garments, food items, artificial jewellery, chemicals, fabrics, imported cloth and cosmetics worth billions rupees, he said, and added that most of the consignments had been imported for Eid festival. He said that importers were compelled to pay millions of rupees on account of demurrage and other charges, as their consignments were detained by the customs officials for examination.
"Period for demurrage charges has already been cut by two days from seven to five days due to Care system, but the importers are forced to pay demurrage for hundreds of containers stuck up for the last 20 days at different ports," he added.
Low capacity at KICT was another chief reason in the delay of release of imported consignments, as the KICT has failed to clear the cargo quickly, the importers said. The importers demanded of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman to intervene in the matter and order immediate release of the stuck up containers.
Meanwhile, Chief Collector of Customs, South, Muneer Qureshi, called an urgent meting on Monday evening to resolve the issue, which was attended by QICT Chief Executive Officer Changeez Neazi, operational head of KICT Captain Rashid, operational head of PICT Captain Zaheer, Arshad Jamal of KCAA and other customs officials.
The representatives of terminals informed the meeting that earlier model custom collectorate was marking 30-40 containers for examination, while, at present, some 70-90 containers were being marked for examination, which was the basic reason of delay in the release of consignments. They said that since the importers would not take delivery of hundreds of imported containers, they would, therefore, facing huge financial losses.
Chief Cllector of Customs Muneer Qureshi, after listening to importers grievances, ordered immediate release of stuck up containers, and instructed the customs officials to nominate more staff for quickly examination of imported goods.
However, Business Recorder has made several attempts to contact the customs officials, including Collector Khalid Mehmood, Additional Collector, Examination, for their comments, but none of them was available.
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