The Pakistan Ship Agents Association (PSAA) has urged the Port Qasim Authority (PQA) to issue port dues bills within 21 days as agreed in a meeting with the Secretary Communications. The PSAA Hon. Secretary Mohammad A Rajpar in a letter to Secretary Ports and Shipping criticised the state of affairs at PQA Finance department and said that ship agents deposited port dues in advance of the vessel's arrival at the Port to be adjusted on finalisation of port dues bill.
He said that since the advance deposit far exceeded the final bill, the refund to ship agents became outstanding, which was not made in time leading to blocking of their capital with the PQA.
Rajpar said that unfortunately the bills finalisation process took inordinately long time resulting in unnecessary blockage of PSAA members' funds. "There has been no improvement on this front despite many requests made to the concerned PQA officials over the years," he added.
The issue was discussed with Chairman PQA at a meeting held in last November who was requested to resolve the problem on priority basis and meet the timeframe of 21 days for issuance of port charge bills.
It may be pointed out the KPT issues port bills to the port users within 10 days.