KARACHI, Nov 27: Pakistani ports not only charge the highest tariffs in the region but are also not equipped to meet the needs of modern maritime trade where competitiveness, efficiency and fast turnaround of vessels are the hallmark of success of a port, experts said.

Similarly, container terminals of the country are much costlier than others in the region and are burden on trade as they enhance the cost of their end- product.

According to a comparatives study of tariffs of the regional ports, the Karachi Port is the costliest port of South Asia followed by Port Qasim, Jawahar Lal Nehru Port and Sri Lanka Port.

The other regional ports such as Singapore and Dubai Ports are even cheaper and they provide state-of-the-art cargo handling and cargo moving equipments to ensure zero turnaround time of vessels.

Thriving on captive cargo the Pakistani ports are unable to improve their working environments by inducing work culture and efficiency, which are vital for the success for any port in this modern and fast moving era of trade and commerce, these experts asserted.

The high port charges directly have a negative bearing on country’s exports, which are difficult to justify in the era of market economy. The trade and industry had been asking the government to bring down port and terminal charges in line with regional ports but no worth mentioning steps have been taken so far, said Jawed Bilwani, chairman Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers Association (PHMA).

The official figures with regard to tariffs of ports reveal that the KPT charges $27,190 per day on an average size container ship of 35,000 gross registered tonnage (GRT).

Against this, the port charges of PQA are $25,090, Jawahar Lal Nehru (JNP) port $23,027, Dubai $2,890, Sri Lanka $7,192 and Singapore Port $2,975.

The breakup of the port charges of the KPT, includes $11,900 paid by a calling ship toward port dues, $2,800 for berth fee (per day), $10,500 for pilotage, $1,940 for tug charges and $50 for launch attendance or for mooring. Therefore, the total wet charges come to $27,190 at the Karachi Port.

There are three container terminals in the country two at the Karachi Port and one at Qasim Port. The tariffs of a private terminal at the Karachi Port are the highest in the region followed by terminal at JNP, Port Qasim, Dubai, Sri Lanka and Singapore terminal.

According to comparative figures the total port call charges of terminals at Karachi Port on an average comes to around $191 for 20-ft container and $289 for 40ft box. Terminal at Port Qasim charges $145 for 20ft and $208 for 40ft container.

These charges include port dues $42 for 20ft box and $84 for 40ft container paid by the exporter, terminal operator charges $75 for 20ft and $85 for 40 feet box, wharfage $30 and $60, respectively, dock labour charges $17 for 20ft and $33 for 40ft box and document fee $27 for both size of boxes.

Besides, these Rs10,000 to Rs11,000 are taken towards terminal handling charges.

There are dormant charges, which are taken from exporters and importers on each move of a box such as loading and unloading on truck and trailers etc.

Both KPT and PQA do not handle trans-shipment cargo/containers and are thriving on captive cargo related to country’s external trade.

Against this, regional ports are competing with each other by handling fairly large quantities of trans-shipment cargoes. Bandar Abbas annually handles 2.5 million TEUs, of which one million are for transshipment, Salalah 100 per cent handles transshipment cargo, Colombo 70 per cent transshipment and 30 per cent domestic cargo and Dubai handles 14 million TEUs.

Around the world tariffs of container terminals are regulated but unfortunately, Pakistani ports are not capable of even monitoring the movement of TEUs and could not exactly say what number of boxes had been handled by a terminal, the experts concluded.