Drawdown from landlocked Afghanistan:
Nato agrees to pay Rs24000 CFC on retriveable military hardware
By ISMAIL DILAWAR
July 3, 2013
KARACHI: The resource-constrained Government of Pakistan would see a pleasant impact on its revenues as the US-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) has started withdrawing hundreds of thousands of tons of its military hardware from the landlocked Afghanistan.
Washington and Islamabad, according to well-placed sources, have consented upon a new fixed levy to be imposed on Nato-related cargo at Pakistani ports.
The agreement came after the United States, which headquarters Isaf, rejected an earlier demand of Pakistan’s ministries of commerce, ports and shipping and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) that the local port operators would be collecting a $ 10-20 “security surcharge” on Nato shipments.
The proposed surcharge was to be collected by the Karachi Ports Trust and the Port Qasim Authority to compensate additional expenditures the two port operators would be incurring on account of extra security measures they would be taking to ensure a safe passage for the Nato war supplies while being transshipped via local seaports.
However, the Isaf authorities have said yes to “customs facilitation charges” (CFC) the collection of which, the sources said, would take effect by the end of this month.
The sources said the FBR would be charging each of Nato’s declarations with Rs 24,000 on account of CFC, most probably from July 15.
“The FBR would be formally issuing an SRO to notify the levy during July 15 and 31,” said the sources privy to the transshipment ofIsaf’s military equipment through Pakistani routes from neighboring Afghanistan.
Led by the United States, the international troops have started a military drawdown that is slated for would completion by the end of December next year.
The Isaf, reportedly, has to pull back from Afghanistan some 0.3 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) that includes around 0.1 million vehicles by the given deadline. “About 60 percent of the total Nato cargo would be retrieved through Pakistan,” said an official at the ministry of ports and shipping.
The balance 40 percent, he said, would be transshipped through alternative routes like the Northern Distribution Network (NDN), the Iranian port of Chabahar and by air.
According to another source, the US had rejected an earlier demand from Pakistan for the imposition of security surcharge by the country’s port operators.
“The proposal has not been approved by the competent authorities in Washington, namely the ministry of defence,” the official said. Also, the official added, the ministry of defence in Pakistan was not so keen to get the proposed fee materialized.
Asked what caused the US’ disapproval of the levy, the official said Washington, and even Pakistan’s defence authorities, deemed it a primary responsibility of the port operators to provide adequate security to the cargo being handled at the seaports they control.
As the Isaf has kick-started its trial shipments, called the Proof of Principle (POP) shipments, via Pakistani routes, the local authorities engaged with the Isaf told Pakistan Today that up to March 19 at least three shipments had been made through Karachi Port.
They said two convoys, each comprising 25 TEUs, had arrived at the Karachi Port a couple of weeks before the given date. While a third convoy comprised some 33 armored vehicles had come through the porous Pak-Afghan border at Torkham. Local logistic firms Bilal Associates and Razik International and international shipping lines like APL and Maersk are said to be associated with the shipments.
According to a shipping expert, the POP shipments are carried out primarily to try the route, security, transit permit, cost and the customs procedures of the transit country. -ENDS
