KCCI appreciates govt’s announcement to waive demurrage, port charges

January 25, 2023 (MLN): President Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI) Mohammed Tariq Yousuf on Wednesday appreciated the government for waiving the demurrage and port charges on all stranded containers at the ports, said a press release issued today. 

He also expressed hope that the Minister’s appeal to Shipping Companies, Freight Forwarders, and Port Handlers to waive off their charges would also be taken into consideration by them as relinquishing just demurrage & port charges would not make much difference.

In a statement, President KCCI said, "In some cases for Sight LCs, formality for Financial Instrument (FI) has already been completed but the commercial banks were tarnishing the country’s image by delaying the release of documents which was resulting in unnecessary demurrage and detention charges in addition to jeopardizing bilateral trade relations."

“The State Bank has approved import funding from outside Pakistan to all those businesses who can avail such facilities whether through sister concerns or through those suppliers who can manage long-term credit but the businesses need firm assurance that the government will not file any contravention against them at a later stage”, he added.

He further suggested that for all cargoes stuck at the ports and their documents in banks, whether on a 60- or 180-day payment period, the payment maturity needs to be from the date of B/L, not from the date of release of cargo.   

“We need a clear directive for incoming shipments that they will also be in timely released otherwise all the current stocks will be hoarded by local businesses to attain maximum profits which would further aggravate the inflation”, he stressed.

He said that the banks should be bound to process all cases of Section 84 & 85 approved by the State Bank before January 5th, 2023 as soon as possible whereas any LC should be entertained without prejudice and delays as they have already been opened with the approval of the Central Bank.

“Immediate exemption is required for anesthesia, all lifesaving drugs, and medical devices so that the private and government hospitals across Pakistan could be operate normally without any interruption as unavailability of desperately needed anesthesia to patients may result in loss of precious lives”, he added.

He further stressed that the open market and interbank disparity was pushing inward remittance via the black market which needs special attention and a result-oriented plan of action.

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