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400 consignments lying at ports may be auctioned

AHMAD RAUF

ISLAMABAD: The Federal government is considering auction of 400 uncleared consignments that have been lying at Karachi Port and Port Qasim for the last six months, official sources told Fortuna on Friday.

The proposal under consideration calls for the auction proceeds to be divided equally between the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) and the port authorities in possession of the uncleared goods.

The proposal flows from a Ministry of Communication report saying that storage charges on these consignments have added up to Rs 2.1 billion while the goods remain unclaimed. The report has been submitted along with a summary to the Economic Coordination Committee of the Cabinet for a final decision.

The ministry has proposed that in the case of a consignment having been imported by a government agency may be lifted by them within a month either on payment of storage dues or on production of an undertaking that the payment would be deducted at source. If the importing agencies fail to lift their consignments under the proposed conditions, then they may be auctioned by the CBR jointly with the concerned port authorities to collect their dues and duties.

Sources said the Ministry of Communication has also proposed a new formula to prevent piling up of consignments at the ports in future. "Out of these 400 consignments, 185 belong to the public sector entities while 118 were imported by the private sector," sources said.

Sources said most of these consignments lay at the Karachi Port, some of them 30-year old.

Sources said storage charges accumulated on these consignments total Rs 2.1 billion, out of which Rs 1.34 billion pertain to goods at the KPT and Rs 764 million to goods at the Port Qasim.

The Ministry of Communication report says the above amount excludes payment to be made by the Wapda, KESC and Pakistan Steel on account of those consignments these organizations lifted from the ports on deferred payment basis.

Sources added in the case of private sector, the consignments remained uncleared at the ports largely because of pending appeals against initial assessment of Customs duties. The lengthy procedure of disposal of appeals results in accumulation of substantial storage charges ahead of a final decision with the ultimate result of importer abandoning the consignment.

While, in the case of public sector consignments, sources added, very often the projects PS-1 do not provide for Customs duty and for foreign expenses within the country. Sources added, the consignments thus remain held at the ports as the concerned departments initially seek duty exemption and go through the process of supplementary grant demands if their requests are not accepted.-Fortuna