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I must congratulate All Pakistan Paper Merchants Association (APPMA) for placing material before the Competition Commission of Pakistan in the matter of loot by shipping companies and agents with impunity and for seizing the record of Pakistan Ship Agents Association for inspection and enforcing provisions of law to check the malpractice.
In the shipping sector, swindling of over Rs100 billion a year is rampant. Consumers have suffered and the cost of doing business has also increased making Pakistani products' cost prohibitive.No concrete measures were taken despite signs of deterioration and the shipping companies and agents thrived on the indifference on the part of the authorities. For over a decade the authorities only tried to shift blame on one another while trade suffered.
Shipping agents were reportedly getting commission from shipping companies for the service of arranging deliveries to the importers and booking export cargo.
In the course of time it reversed and ship agents competed to get agencies from the shipping companies by not only giving free service but also by sharing the booty with them.
It happened because ship agents extorted handsome amounts from trade and paid the share to shipping companies.
Some of the shipping companies dispensed services of the shipping agents and opened their own offices in Pakistan to keep the full booty. The list of such malpractices in the sector is too long.
Regulating authorities allowed them to indulge in the loot and plunder with impunity.
Also, the modus operandi of the terminal operators is no different except that they have no association in their name.
The recovered port demurrage on behalf of the Karachi Port Trust is in excess and then allowed under KPT tariff.
Under the Insurance Ordinance, the person licensed can collect insurance premium.
But the shipping agents in flagrant violation have collected insurance from importers for the alleged damage to containers without being licensed and without issuing insurance policy at the rate of a premium 10 times more than the tariff.
The fact is that shipping companies covered the vessel and containers for damage risk under the Protection and Indemnity Club, as it is the carrier's liability. There is no justification for recovery from importers.
Consumers have suffered much at their hands. It is time the government acted swiftly on the matter.
NOOR MOHAMMED Karachi
