LAHORE: The shipping companies have been urged by the Punjab business community to open their offices in the cities having dry ports, so that the process of import and export could be carried out without any delay.
According to a clearing and forwarding agent, Sheikh Ejaz, most of the imports are done through the seaports and then dispatched to other cities even they have dry ports.
“Due to overload of work, most of the customs staff is posted at seaports and the remaining customs officers and collectorates have very few work of clearance at dry ports,” he added.
A leather importer, Mian Anjum, was of the view that the importers had to pay a huge amount over transporting their goods from seaport to dry ports. Explaining the whole procedure, he said, “After clearance at Karachi port, the goods could be loaded on truck, which takes 48 hours to reach Lahore and the trucker charges Rs0.1 million for a 20 feet container”. The shipping lines charged Rs1,000 per day from the importer, if the empty container is not sent back within the time limit, he added.
According to another businessman, train freight services are uncertain and the importer has to pay port handling charges at Karachi and then at Lahore dry port. Since bonded containers are limited, the importer has to wait for a few days to arrange bonded transport and pay storage charges to a port handler.
