ISLAMABAD: During the second meeting of the Steering Committee on Integrated Transit Trade Management System, Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar lauded Committee members for visiting all three sites including Turkham, Chaman and Wahga for establishing land parts under ITTMS and completing the preliminary work in this regard.
The Finance Minister said that Land Port Authority should oversee the construction, and management and maintenance of the integrated border crossing points and future extension.
He said that LPA should act at the common platform for all regulatory agencies including customs, immigration, terminal operator, security, quarantine, banks, shipping agencies, freight forwarders etc. and the concepts would be based on various administration models followed around the world in countries like Singapore, India and Bangladesh.
The Minister further directed that LPA should be self-sustaining entity, with maximum operational and financial autonomy.
The Finance Minister directed the chairman FBR to present first draft of PC-I by 21st August for consideration and approval by the committee.
On this occasion, Commerce Minister Khurram Dastagir said that the setting up of the modern land ports with the neighbouring countries will enhance regional trade and cooperation.
He pointed out that in future more border crossing points will be setup in order to curb smuggling.
Earlier, chairman FBR Tariq Bajwa in a detailed presentation briefed the participants about the progress made so far with regard to establishing land parts at Turkham, Chaman and Wahga under integrated transit trade management system.
According to Bajwa, the project has been included in PSDP 2014-15 and final draft of PC-I is about to be completed.
He further informed that the sub-committee visited the three sites and layout plan for the border crossing points has been prepared and they are waiting for ADB review mission report. After the submission of the review report, the stakeholders’ consensus on layout design will be taken.
He further told that the informed cost of the project is around Rs.22.058 billion out of which foreign exchange component will be Rs.20.196 billion and the local component will be around Rs.1.862 billion.
The project will be completed in 36 months and the executing agency will be the land port authority (LPA). PC-I of the project is based on the feasibility report prepared by ADB under TA-8405.
The meeting was also attended by Finance Secretary, Dr. Waqar Masood, Secretary Commerce Arbab Shahzad, Advisor to the Finance Ministry, Rana Assad Amin, Additional Finance Secretary/Special Assistant to Finance Minister, Shahid Mahmood and senior officials of the Finance Ministry.
