Authorities aim to increase export target by mobilising local industry. PHOTO: FILE
HYDERABAD: After a long hiatus of nearly a decade, exports from the Hyderabad Dry Port have resumed.
A ceremony in this regard was organised at the National Logistic Cell’s managed dry port on Wednesday. Representatives of the Hyderabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (HCCI) and other traders attended the event.
A container carrying sugarcane molasses was cleared for the export on the occasion. “It was indeed a great mistake to keep it [the dry port] dysfunctional for so long,” said Muhammad Zahid, chief collector of Karachi Customs.
“We hope to increase the export target by mobilising the local industry to use the dry port for the purpose,” he added.
The port, established in 1984 on over 20 acres of land, has the storage capacity of 200 containers. It is located on the outskirts of Hyderabad on the Jamshoro road adjacent to Aga Khan Maternity and Healthcare center.
The exports attained the pinnacle at Rs5,421 million in 2002-03 before plumbing down to a paltry Rs42 million in 2006-07, according to figures shared by the officials.
“The major reason behind the slump was a decrease in exports of the Fateh Group of Industries to Russia and Central Asia and a lack of facilities in comparison to the Karachi port,” a customs official, who requested anonymity, told The Express Tribune. The port, he added, still lacked the capacity for cold storage.
The official informed that the WeBOC software, used for custom clearance, was recently installed at the dry port’s computers and it helps expedite the clearance process. “Earlier, we had to maintain the shipment record with paper and pen.”
He told that the clearance at Hyderabad dry port usually takes a day or two unlike Karachi where up to seven or eight days are required. “When we will put a seal to a container [after clearance] it will land directly on the ship.”
However, the port has recently been witnessing a decline in imports as well, according to another official, who also did not want to be identified. He informed that in 2012-13 goods worth Rs5 billion were imported through the port while the figure increased to Rs5.3 billion in 2013-14.
“But by the next year the imports dropped to less than half. And in the first six months of the ongoing fiscal year, only Rs500 million worth of imports have been done,” he claimed.
According to HCCI President Seth Goharullah, Hyderabad exports goods worth around $90 million annually through the Karachi port.
He requested the officials to provide facilities for agricultural exports in Hyderabad besides making import of electronics and auto-parts, which are also currently being imported in Karachi, possible at the dry port.
Headed by a BPS-19 Additional Collector, the dry port consists of a total of 34 staff members including an assistant deputy collector, two principal appraisers, four deputy superintendents and 13 inspectors. The Hyderabad office also carries out assessment of the confiscated goods in addition to assessment and processing of the imported and exported items.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 21st, 2016.
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