LAHORE: Leader of the Pakistani exporters’ community in Japan, Raza Hasmi has said that the illegal demurrage and detention charges by the shipping lines including M/s Maersk Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd and terminal operator QICT have increased problems for overseas Pakistanis exporting cheap vehicles and spare parts to Pakistan.
Raza Hashmi who is visiting Pakistan nowadays has told Customs Today that Pakistanis are facing problems that are working in Japan and exporting items to Pakistan specially vehicles and spare parts. He said that there are more than 1,000 Pakistanis in Japan working in the sector of auto mobiles and they provide cheap vehicles to Pakistanis by purchasing from Japan and exporting to Pakistan. Raza Hashmi is a leader of Pakistani Japanese community as well. Raza Hasmi is also a member of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) since decades.
Talking about the alleged illegal demurrage and detention charges being taken by the shipping lines including M/s Maersk Pakistan (Pvt) Ltd and terminal operator QICT, he said that these shipping lines are not regulated by Customs Department and the government which creates problems for importers.
Raza Hasmi said that tax authorities need to change their attitude so that taxpayers are facilitated, and the tax system should be made simple, enabling the businessmen to pay their taxes without passing and suffering through the intense procedures, the LCCI VP emphasized.
He said that FBR should take action against a few corrupt customs officials who for the sake of minting money illegally obstruct the import consignments despite the fact that the consignments are cleared by the customs authorities in Karachi.
He said that overseas Pakistanis are an important component of the economy who have been ignored for so long. “The overseas Pakistanis have been remitting a big chunk of forex reserves which more or less is equal to the size of the value of total exports”.
“The overseas Pakistanis can play a vital role in building the economy on sustainable basis,” Raza Hashmi pointed out, adding that the incentives will prompt them to send the remittances through the banking channels.
