The Senate Standing Committee for Ports and Shipping on Tuesday recommended the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to set $500 tax over each NATO and ISAF containers that land in
Karachi Port.
The committee advised that NATO containers should be landed at Gwadar Port instead of Karachi so that the newly-built port starts its operations.
The meeting of Standing Committee was presided by the Senator Gulshan Saeed in Parliament House in which the committee discussed the monetary loss due to NATO and ISAF supplies to Pakistan, besides the logistical burden at Karachi Port, and traffic problems due to the movement of NATO containers. The committee informed that 1,657 containers were piled up at Karachi Port Trust (KPT) since November last year. The committee ordered that there should be strict checking at the ports so that no unnecessary items arrive in Pakistan.
Talking about Gwadar Port, Federal Minister for Ports and Shipping Babar Ghauri was of the view that the supply of NATO containers to Afghanistan was very complicated via Gwadar Port because the motorway (M8) had not been completed yet between Rato Dero and Gwadar. Because of the incomplete M8 project, containers return to Karachi.
“If we ensure landing of NATO containers at Gwadar Port then US government will be compelled to give loan for the completion of M8 project,” Senator Tariq Azim said. FBR representative Najib Abbas said they did not have any device to scan the contents of a container without opening it. He said that if the owners of 1,657 containers which are present at KPT do not contact in three months, then those containers would be auctioned.
