Director General Quarantine DPP, Dr Falak Naz has emphasised that the Department Plant Protection (DPP) has to ensure quality imports and exports at any cost. Speaking at a meeting of Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI), he also called for stringent measures to save the country from infiltration of any disease through the imported commodities.
He agreed to form a joint committee in association with KCCI to timely resolve numerous issues being faced by the importers and exporters of various commodities whose consignments remain stuck up at ports for many days causing severe losses on account of demurrages and detention.
Dr Falak Naz advised KCCI to finalise nominations for the joint committee comprising relevant stakeholders while the nominations from DPP would be decided in the next internal meeting of the department.
"Many issues pertaining to extensive tests and delays in issuance of import permits and certifications highlighted by KCCI members have been noted," he said, adding that those were not so complicated and could be resolved. He said the DPP would accordingly take steps to ease the overall process and provide relief to both - the importers and the exporters.
"We will frequently hold dialogue and maintain interaction with KCCI in order to resolve the issues being faced by traders as we want to create an enabling environment for everyone," he assured. Director Technical DPP, Dr Muhammad Tariq Khan said that most of the issues raised by members of the business community were due to communication gap and lack of information which was being addressed.
"In this regard, DPP has developed a vibrant website which will provide many facilities and detailed information, besides enabling the stakeholders to fulfil most of the DPP requirements online as we are keen to ease the process by focusing more on the online facilities," he said, adding that funds were available for maintaining the website to be launched within next few days.
He said the issues being highlighted by business community representatives were hardly 10 percent of the overall operations as 90 percent of the activities at DPP were going on smoothly. KCCI president Junaid Esmail Makda, in his welcome address, pointed out that the importers complain of difficult procedures and delays in getting all the requirements and testing completed.
Sometimes, they are forced to under the table payments in addition to the official testing fees while at times a substantial quantity of the imported product is taken by the authorities in the name of sample for testing which require special attention.
He lamented that the importers have to run from pillar to post to obtain all the certificates since all the facilities are not available at the point of customs clearance or even in the vicinity. Moreover, all the procedures are manual involving submission of application along with all the required documents and if the case is approved, they are required to submit a bank challan of National Bank of Pakistan which usually takes 3 to 16 or more days to get the certificate, provided there is not a single deficiency in the documents submitted.
Makda said that getting all these NOCs and approvals is also a very difficult procedure and make the importer vulnerable to harassments, corruption and bribes at multiple levels. "The DPP is regularly blamed for descending exports because of its relaxed approach, lack of required infrastructure and professional leadership," he said, requesting the DG Quarantine to simplify procedures and create some kind of liaison between KCCI and DPP to minimize the grievances being faced by traders.
He hailed the idea of DPP-KCCI joint committee, saying it would be helpful in resolving the issues being faced by traders. KCCI senior vice president Khurram Shahzad, VP Asif Sheikh Javaid, chairman Customs & Valuation Subcommittee Waseem-ur-Rehman, ex-president Haroon Agar, ex-SVP Abdul Basit Abdul Razzak, former VP Agha Shahab Ahmed Khan, Managing Committee members and other stakeholders attended the meeting.