Customs suffer Rs2.3 billion loss on Tuesday

KARACHI: Activity at the Customs House, Karachi, came to standstill on Tuesday resulting in revenue loss to the tune of Rs2.3 billion to the national exchequer. The attendance was poor because the lower staff, importers and exporters did not turn up due to the strike call given to mourn the deaths in a bomb blast in main Ashura procession on Monday.
 
The city remained under the grip of tension after the suicide attack in which around 40 people were killed and over 80 injured.


The life in the country’s commercial hub came to a grinding halt as public transport remained off the road as a mark of protest against the tragic incident. Besides, the provincial government had also declared Tuesday a close holiday.

Customs sources told Dawn that not a single importer or his agent appeared to clear goods as no Goods Declaration (GD) came for clearance. Despite the fact that filing of GDs through electronic is also possible but importers could not take out cargo from the port area because no public transport was available.

As a result there was total shut down and the country suffered colossal loss in revenue in a single day.
According to official estimates the country suffered a loss of around Rs2.3 billion in customs duty and in inland revenue, which includes sales tax and income tax.

Giving details a Customs official said that all the collectorates at Karachi Port and Port Qasim did not collect any revenue because no GDs were filed by importers.

According to sources on an average Pakistan Automation Computerised Clearing System (PaCCS) collects around 600 GDs of import and about 450 GDs related to exports cargo per day. Along these DGs the Customs collect around Rs430 million towards revenue per day.

They further said that the collectorate of appraisement at Karachi and Port Qasim on an average collect the double the number of GDs, where containers with full load (FCL) and containers with lose load (LCL) are handled.

However, revenue collection by the appraisement collectorates stands at around Rs200 million for each of the collectorate at Karachi and Qasim Port, sources said.

Therefore, the Customs official said that in all the Customs on an average collects over Rs2.3 billion per day but as the city remained totally paralysed and no commercial activity, including imports and exports, was witnessed the revenue collection also remained zero.

The ports which normally operate round the clock somewhat kept the normal working where vessels arrived and also sailed out. However, in the absence of goods carriers no cargo moved in or came out port areas of Karachi and Port Qasim.

According to Port Qasim traffic controller one container vessels sailed out and another took berth on Tuesday at Qasim International Container Terminal (QICT).

Similarly, at Liquid Cargo Terminal (LCT) one tanker sailed out and other took berth to unload 4,000 tons of palm oil.

At the Karachi Port the activity was fairly brisk where a total of 38,171 tons of import cargo and 20,490 tons of export cargo were handled.

The port handled 22,261 containers of import cargo and 15,351 boxes of export cargo.

The KPT handled 10,700 tons of general cargo (imports) but there was no export cargo. The bulk cargo import was 1,210 tons and exports 5,139 tons. The liquid cargo (import) handled was 4,000 tons and there was no export cargo.

The Karachi Port handled 11 ships, including four which sailed out and seven were accommodated on berths. However, the ship handling was somewhat normal though not fully on its average pace, sources said.