The Directorate General of Ports and Shipping (DGPS) has set up a five-member committee to look into the complaints of exorbitant fee charged by Non-Vessel Operating Common Carriers (NVOCC), generally known as forwarding agents.
The committee will also study the demand made by the trade that a licensing authority be created to regulate the working and charges of NVOCC.
The decisions were taken at the meeting of the committee on ports and shipping set up by the Minister of Communications at the request of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI).
The Director General, Ports and Shipping, Captain Anwar Shah, chaired the meeting.
Giving details of the meeting, Chairman of KCCI sub-committee on Ports and Multi-modal Transport Iftikhar Sheikh said that the importers were required by the shipping companies to take delivery of imports through the NOVCC, which charged up to Rs 20,000 from the importer, although they paid only Rs 4,550 to the shipping companies to obtain bill of lading.
The meeting was attended by the officials from the customs, Karachi Port Trust, Port Qasim Authority (PQA), KCCI and Karachi Customs Agents Group (KCAG).
The meeting also discussed the demand of the trade to restore the demurrage free days to 10 days, which were cut to seven days by the KPT and container terminals.
The KPT official pledged to look into the demand of the trade to cut the demurrage free days.
The installation of scanners for screening of the export containers was also discussed by the committee, and the trade bodies demanded that the charges for screening should be borne by the government.
They further suggested that since the scanning of containers would take time, a separate gate be nominated at the Karachi Port to avoid long queues of trucks, blocking roads outside the port.
The meeting was attended, among others, by former KPT Trustee Asif Aziz Balagamwala, KCAG President Sultan Mahmood, General Manager, Traffic, Karachi Port Trust, Commodore Khamis.
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