All Pakistan traders associations along with Custom Clearing & Forwarding agents have expressed serious concerns that containers are still stuck at Ports. They demanded that an immediate solution to the problem should be found because if a businessman is fined 15,000 dollars for a container worth 10,000 dollars, the business will be destroyed, due to which the inflation rate in the country will rise sharply and necessary commodities will be out of reach for poor and common man.
They staged a peaceful protest against the State Bank of Pakistan to bring into their attention and pressure the banks to release the import documents on D.A (Document against Acceptance. The traders sought permission from the buyers to release the containers based on the delayed payment (DA) documents, but the government is not allowing them on the same, which has made the situation even worse. They said that traders cannot afford to pay fines that are double the value of the containers.
If the SBP and the government does not take immediate action, the business community will be on the brink of collapse. Keeping the goods at the ports will spoil them and Pakistan will be discredited all over the world for not being able to pay for the goods ordered. The amount of demurrage and detention of the containers going out in foreign exchange is also affecting the dollar reserves of Pakistan.
Complaints are being received from importers that the orders of Pakistani traders have started to be cancelled all over the world, it is feared that exporters will stop selling their goods shortly to Pakistan which is dependent on imports, causing irreparable damage. They appealed to the SBP & government to take this problem seriously and take steps for an immediate solution.
Importers are aware of Pakistan's current crises. The only demand of the importers in protest was to release import documents even if the payment should be paid after one year to the supplier. To protect Pakistan and importers from loss in the form of demurrage and detention. If the demands are not met or if SBP does not take any action then they will have no choice and their next plan of action will be to organize a giant rally.
Hello Textile Web News Desk
