KARACHI: A meeting of All Gwadar Shipping Clearing Agents Association (AGSCAA) was held at Finance & Trade Centre, Gwadar corner under the chairmanship of Association’s President Abdul Rahim Zafar here on Friday.
The meeting attended by all prominent members of the Association Engr Hameed Baloch General Secretary, Abdul Majeed, Pak Traders, Yasir Dashti, Dashti Shipping, Talal Zafar Gurab Line Shipping and Naveed Kalmati head of local transporters.
The main agenda was Federal Government’s decision to import 500,000 tonnes of wheat to fulfil the needs of the people of Pakistan.
The meeting noted that the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) decided to import 50% of this consignment through Gwadar Port, but there are rumours that a vested interest mafia is trying to deceive the ECC and Ministry of Commerce that Gwadar Port is not economical, which is totally wrong.
The facts are that the Gwadar Port is more economical than any other port like KPT and Qasim Ports. Both the said ports are always congested and ships go to demurrage and the storage charges of KPT and Qasim Ports are very high.
However, at the Gwadar Port there are no demurrage and storage charges, along with the quickest stevedoring services. It can be checked by the previous record of TCP.
Moreover, the meeting regretted that Gwadar Port has totally been neglected by the federal government since 2016, though it is the property of federal government. FBR records will prove that a huge amount of revenue have been collected during the year 2009 to 2016 from Gwadar Port.
They demanded that fifty percent of all government consignments, i.e., urea, wheat and sugar should be imported through Gwadar Port to keep the Port operational and provide opportunities to locals to earn their livelihood and participate in the economic activities of the country.
They said that the economic activities here will create positive impact on people while unemployment creates resentment and negative attitude and compel people to involve in unlawful activities.
They demanded to all concerned departments to import 50% of wheat through Gwadar Port as per the previous decision of the ECC.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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