950807

Delayed CRF

FPCCI urged

to help resolve

issue of heavy

demurrages

RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: The Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI) has suggested to the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry to approach customs authorities for the solution of the problem of heavy demurrages the importers are facing due to delay in CRF.

Sohail A. Sethi, Chairman, Import Trade Committee of RCCI, has suggested that while submitting the cases to NLC, railways or private carrier for the transhipment of containers, the previous procedure should be adopted.

The procedure was that these carriers were authorized to register the case on non-negotiable documents and without a copy of CRF.

According to Sethi, this procedure worked very well for a long time and demurrages were saved.

While the consignments were on road for dry port, banks received original documents and PSI companies issued CRF.

But now the procedure is that photo copies of original documents are sent to NLC, railways and private carriers on instructions from the customs.

As a result importers have to wait for original documents and CRF. The importers of goods from UAE have to wait for documents which take a week or 15 days to arrive in bank which is possible only if the shipping documents are labelled in time by PSI companies.