ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Ports and Shipping has sought assistance from the Standing Committee of the National Assembly to get customs duty of Rs 3 billion waived which was levied on four tugboats.
The PNSC procured four tugboats at the cost of $25 million four years ago. However, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) levied customs duty of Rs 3 billion. Tugboats are used for maneuvering vessels by pushing or towing them. The tugboats are powerful for their size and strongly built, and some are ocean-going.
Briefing the National Assembly Standing Committee on Ports and Shipping about implementation status of development plans of PNSC, Secretary Ports and Shipping Khalid Parvez said that issue was taken up in the Executive Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet. ECC formed a committee to resolve this issue with the FBR.
“Meanwhile, the FBR tried to detain PNSC officials over nonpayment of customs duty, but PNSC obtained a stay order from the court which made this case sub-judice, therefore the committee observed that reported issue was sub-judice therefore it should be resolved judicially,” he added. Moreover, he said that ECC was of the view that it did not reserve powers to waive the said duty therefore parliamentary procedure should be followed in this regard.
Therefore, he demanded of the committee to play its due role in this regard however, committee decided to get opinion from the Law Division on either to move a motion in the National Assembly or move recommendations from the committee secretariat.
PNSC Chairman Arif Elahi proposed a joint meeting of PNSC with Pakistan State Oil (PSO) to resolve dispute between both the state organizations. The dispute between both the organizations has incurred loss of $ 25 million to PNSC in last four months because the PSO has stopped transportation of petroleum products through PNSC ships.
Presently, PNSC has receivables of Rs 2.5 billion from PSO and blockade of such a huge amount s affecting the operational performance of PNSC” both the personalities observed while briefing the National Assembly Standing Committee on Ports and Shipping about implementation status of development plans of PNSC here.
They informed the committee that all other refineries except PSO had no objection about PNSC performance and other standards and that was why they were preparing PNSC ships. But unfortunately, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources and Ministry of Commerce preferred international shipping networks instead of PNSC for the transportation of imports which was nothing else but the wastage of national exchequer.
