In the absence of laws, Customs authorities have failed to regulate the business of different container terminals at port amid extraordinary fees and making imports very expensive, well-placed sources told Business Recorder on Thursday.
Sources said that custom authorities have admitted the facts in different meetings with importers, but no summary was yet submitted to the government to control the menace of extraordinary profiteering by the concerned organisations.
The sources said these three terminals including Al-Hamd International Container Terminal (AICT), Karachi International Container Terminal (KICT) and Pakistan International Container Terminals (PICT) were charging different fees on same weights.
Citing an example of scrap material weighing 245 metric tonnes the sources said that AICT charged Rs 204,665 while the other container terminal charged some Rs 33,000 for 321 metric tonnes scrap material.
The sources said that interestingly the government imposed only one percent custom duty on scrap material. The sources said that importers have repeatedly raised the issue before the custom authorities but all in vain. The sources said that importers were facing hardship due to highly varied charges by these terminals, which affect the cost of their production.
Likewise, the sources said that the matter of high valuation advice was still pending as the member customs had formed a committee to solve the issue, which will be submitted to the chairman Federal Board of Revenue. The sources said that custom department had implemented the group system to access the valuation advises, which is not operative in these days. It has also created difficulties for importers.