SIALKOT: All Pakistan Dry Ports Association Chairman Muhammad Ishaq Butt said that inter-regional exports and imports are increasing throughout the Asia as Asia’s share of world containerized exports and imports is expected to rise further significantly by year 2015.
In an interview with Customs Today on Monday, he said that total number of containers handled in Asian Ports is estimated to reach 492 million twenty equivalent units (TEU) by 2015 and the shipment volume will comprise 109 million TEU of this total. The growth of inter-regional trade and then expected growth of containerized transport in Asia clearly demonstrates the need of improved intermodal freight transport in the region.
Mr Butt, who is also the Chairman of Sialkot Dry Port Trust (SDPT), said that the development of inter-modelism requires the development of dry ports, which could play a major role in promoting n intermodal transport.
He apprised that in order to promote intermodal transport , it is essential to develop transport links and nods, which includes ports, airports, river ports and inland dry ports as well as to improve the efficiency of transport services. A dry port is an inland intermodal terminal/ customs station directly connected to seaport by road and rail, where customs can leave and or collect their standardized units as if directly to seaport and offers services including customs clearance, storage and forwarding etc, he opined.
Ishaq Butt appreciated the government for taking steps in infrastructure development especially the Lahore-Karachi Motorway and expressed that in order to unlock growth, Pakistan must improve the infrastructure.
He added that it is commendable that government has taken steps to reduce the budget deficit, widening the tax case to improve tax to GDP ratio. Moreover, he suggested that the principal focus of the tax proposals should be on the development of a direct tax regime in order to make federal taxation buoyant and progress.
He added that role of up country dry ports will become very vital in the coming days with the growth of interregional business, especially due to improved trade relations among SAARC countries and predictable peace in the region.
Muhammad Ishaq Butt revealed that the up country dry ports are facing a number of issues due to implementation of WeBoc system. He said that there is no such infrastructure to respond quickly to address these issues. Due to absence of trouble shooting / problems solving mechanism, consider delays are observed which causes cancellation of GDs, missing of vessels of export goods and additional financial loss to all the stake holders.
He said that installation of scanners at Karachi ports, high frequency of checking of customs bonded cargo at Karachi ports was the need of the day, which is already examined and checked by Customs and ANF at up country dry ports, causing missing of the vessels and extra costs. Moreover, ruthlessly opening of cartons for rechecking of cartons causes extra costs and receiving of damage cargo at destination result not only financial loss to the exporters but also earn bad fame for the country.
He demanded that scanners at all Karachi ports and up country customs be installed and such measures be adopted by Anti Narcotics Force (ANF) to avoid damage to export cargo while examining
