Chairman Karachi Port Trust (KPT) Syed Syedain Raza Zaidi, after listening to the grievances being faced by business community due to exorbitantly high and totally unjust charges, grilled Shipping Companies for terribly looting traders by overcharging under various headers without any justification. KPT will go very tough against the highhandedness of shipping companies, hence, they should submit details of their registration, license, relevant laws or any agreement within 10 days which authorized them to take excessively high charges, he added after representatives of shipping companies failed to defend their position and kept giving lame excuses during a recent meeting held at KPT Office.
The meeting was also attended by Karachi Chamber’s delegation which comprised of President KCCI Iftikhar Ahmed Sheikh, Member KPT Board of Trustees Asif Nisar Vohra, Chairman Maritime Affairs Subcommittee M. Farooq Zahid, Chairman Customs & Valuation Subcommittee Waqas Anjum, Former Vice Presidents Nasir Mehmood & Younus Soomro, Managing Committee Member Aslam Pakhali while representatives of Karachi Customs Agents Associations (KCAA), All Pakistan Shipping Association (APSA) and Pakistan Ship’s Agents Association (PSAA) along with Chief Executive Officers of Karachi International Container Terminal (KICT), South Asia Pakistan Terminals (SAPT) and Karachi Gateway Terminal Limited (KGTL) were also present on the occasion. Chairman KPT, while seeking details of any agreement between Shipping Companies and the State Bank of Pakistan for remitting dollars outside Pakistan, opined that it seems that shipping companies were engaged in a ‘big offense’ by acting against the interest of Pakistan and creating more problems for the country by remitting billions of dollars outside the country which requires special attention.
“Who has given the permission to charge such hefty freight charges, rentals, DO Charges”, he asked after reviewing all the evidences shared by President KCCI during the meeting but no adequate response was received from the representatives of shipping companies. “KPT is the right authority to whom businessmen in distress could seek assistance in dealing with shipping companies and we’ll make sure that no injustice is being done”, he added in response to KCCI’s concerns over absence of an effective authority which could be approached for lodging complaints against shipping companies.
On the occasion, President KCCI Iftikhar Ahmed Sheikh demanded that free days should only start when the vessel completes discharging process rather than from the date of vessel’s arrival whereas Saturdays and Sundays along with all public holidays must also be exempted from be treated as free days as Shipping Companies remain closed during weekends and holidays. “Some shipping companies even demand advance rent for 10 days during free days which is totally illegal and it clearly shows shipping companies intention to deliberately delay the process for making extra money”, he added.
“If shipping cannot operate on Saturdays and Sundays then they should either enhance number of free days from the existing 5 days to 15 days or come up with a mechanism which is capable of accepting documents and issuing DOs electronically on weekends”, he said, adding that it was really strange that KPT and Terminal Operators remain operational round the clock but shipping companies remain open during office hours only for five days a week to accept documents and issue Delivery Orders (DOs) which creates more problem particularly in case when the original documents arrive on a Friday afternoon whose DO will not be issued before Monday, resulting in wasting three consecutive days.
