MULTAN: Multan Dry Port is the one of the best ports of the country which provides best services on time to importers and exporters, said Deputy Collector Customs Multan Dry Port Muhammad Ali Malik.
In an exclusive interview with Customs Today on Wednesday, he said, “The Port provides prompt clearance of containers service as almost 95 percent consignment are cleared the same day while the remaining five percent consignments are delayed due to exporters own negligence or clearing agents present their documents not on time,” he held. He said that the Port provides the service of onsite clearance of Industrial raw material. The Port is providing end to end clearance of consignment by filing online goods declaration.
“WeBoc is a digital system to overcome any error filed in goods declaration and it provides assistance in our job but business community still feels there is still a room for improvement in this digital system,” Malik said, adding that the Port will attract more the exporters and importers if the government establishes a bounded cargo train services for the importers and exporters of this region.
“The South Punjab has a lot of business potential if government establishes a bounded railway service for the importers and exporters. The service will improve the imports and exports activities of the Port. Bounded Railway service will expand the business volume by establishing a container terminal in the port.” He said that the Port touches the boundaries of three provinces -Sindh , Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa -which increases its attraction due to geographical significance.
The port has its importance due to the existence of many pesticides factories, textile industry, feed mills cooking oil firms and huge petroleum oil refinery in this region. He affirmed that Multan Dry Port would be one of the dry ports of the Pakistan with some specific facilities but it is very unfortunate that people still prefer clearance from other ports due to some misleading information about us that clearance from Multan Dry port is slow and adopt complicated procedure. The Port is also touching one international border of India through Raajhistan. He said that Multan Dry Port signed an agreement with Pakistan Railways for bounded train service in 2010 but due to unknown reason it has not been established yet.
He said that the South Punjab Region has a lot of potential for business activity if government give some attention to this dry port by providing locomotives train cargo service and the government should declare all this all 34 kanal area for bounded Multan Dry Port. He said that suppose if the business community is paying 140,000 per container charges from Karachi to Multan for the clearance of their consignment through road then they can save almost Rs 80,000 to Rs 90,000from the bounded train cargo service.
He said that mutual cooperation for further enhancement of services at the Port requires better coordination among the clearing agent, dry port authorities and dry port trust. The Port revenue is increasing constantly due to our enhanced services to our clients and better management performance,” Malik said. “Due to their better performance and administration, the Multan Dry Port has generated Customs duty of Rs1752.811 million, Rs 5508.713 million and Federal Excise duty of Rs 32.207 million and income tax of Rs 87.698 million up to the September from July of this fiscal year 2014-15.
The petroleum levy generated by the Multan Dry Port Custom is Rs 2969.357 million up to the September of this fiscal year 2014-15,” Malik added. He said that our staff also upgrades their knowledge through capacity building training programmes of mid career course to improve their performance during their job and to enhance their abilities.
