The World Bank (WB) mission has expressed concerns over cargo handling at the ports, Business Recorder learnt on Friday. According to sources, the WB mission, headed by Tony Mort, along with Wyatt Grant, during its visit to customs operations sites passed dissatisfactory marks over cargo handling at container terminals.
The WB mission said that cargo handling at container terminals was not up to the mark and it should be managed in an organised manner, sources said. The WB mission said it was staggered while visiting the customs operations sites where the goods were spread out of containers and no customs official was present to handle the situation, sources said. Later, the WB mission held a meeting with representatives of business fraternity and Karachi Customs Agents Association (KCAA) to discuss customs related issues.
Sources said that the WB mission was informed that the business community was facing delays in clearance of consignments, causing huge losses in terms of detentions and demurrage. They said the representatives of KCAA urged the WB mission to persuade the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to grant five working days as free dwell time of consignments at ports instead of five calendar days for the purpose. Moreover, the representatives of KCAA said that if the authorities concerned introduced any new customs clearance system, the system must have the ability to cope with the existing users' traffic.
Reacting to the said remarks, the WB mission apprised the representatives of KCAA that the authorities concerned were so far not contemplating to introduce any new system for the purpose. They said that the WB delegates would submit recommendations and suggestions to help the authorities concerned for improving the customs operations.
Comments
Comments are closed.