The news under the captioned "Row between exporters, PSAA-PIFFA intensifies" appeared in daily Business Recorder on 10 April 2010, which is a significant and serious issue and need to be addressed on urgent and alarming basis by high ups.
This is the fact that many foreign buyers have involved shipping agents and freight forwarders/consolidators in their frauds, and as a result, scores of Pakistani exporters have lost billions of dollars.
There are many instances of this type of frauds. Let me explain how this fraud is framed. Foreign buyers nominate forwarders/consolidators and exporters, who are bond to execute their shipments through these forwarders/consolidators. The forwarder mentions the name of consignee on house bill of lading (HBL/HAWB), which is mentioned on export documents of the exporters. On the master bill of lading, the forwarder mentions the name of his parent/other company as consignee, which is based in the country of foreign buyer? This is a clear violation of the Foreign Exchange Act 1947 and the SBP's circular No 6 (2006) dated 15 May 2006.
The foreign buyers play with Pakistani exporters and use delaying tactics. Meanwhile, the forwarder of the foreign importer unloads goods from container and releases empty container, which is useless for the exporter and he is in the dark about the location and condition of his goods in importer's country.
Global recession and global economic crisis are encouraging these types of frauds. The government is requested to intervene in the matter, and save the Pakistani exporters from this fraud.