PESHAWAR: The Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) on Saturday urged the government to withdraw the Covid-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs) at Torkham border crossing, and to remove hurdles in the way of Pak-Afghan mutual and transit trade.
The demand was made by SCCI Senior Vice President Shahid Hussain during a meeting with Director-General Transit Trade Karachi, Raza Ahmad Khan.
While highlighting issues of customs clearing agents and the business community, former SCCI official Ziaul Haq Sarhadi apprised the meeting that nearly 7,000 transit trade containers/trucks were stuck due to the slow clearing process at Karachi port, which was impacting negatively on Pak-Afghan bilateral and transit trade.
He said that heavy charges were being collected from traders and exporters on account of “demurrage and detention” at the Karachi port. With the business community already hit by the Covid-19 lockdown, this further pushes the community towards an economic depression. He called for the withdrawal of demurrage and detention charges immediately to ease the financial woes of the traders’ community.
Sarhadi said that following the directives of the Federal Board of Revenue, 100 percent examination of transit trade containers was being carried out at Karachi port, while an additional checking of trucks was also being conducted at the Torkham border. He claimed this to be the main reason behind the slowdown of the mutual and transit trade with Afghanistan.
He urged the concerned authorities to conduct only a 5 percent examination of containers at Karachi port to accelerate the bilateral and transit trade between the two neighboring countries. He also stressed on the need for the installation of more scanning machines at the Karachi port and signing agreements with multiple companies for the tracker system.
He stressed that the clearing and checking process of transit trade containers/trucks should be expedited at the Karachi Port and the Torkham border.
Furthermore, he asked to allow empty trucks and containers stuck on the Afghanistan side to move to the Torkham border, onto their final destination, Karachi, to overcome the shortages at the port.
Sarhadi urged the federal government to withdraw SRO 121. This would allow the transportation of loose-cargo to Afghanistan, in addition to container cargo, which can remove the monopoly of bonded carriers. He suggested holding a meeting of the Pak-Afghan Joint Liaison Committee after two months.
