Transporters threaten to step up protest against FBR

They say that its new registration system will lead to their exploitation.

KARACHI: Transporters who carry Nato supplies, as well as, Afghan Transit Trade cargo are looking for new ways to protest against the Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) custom bonded carrier system.

On Monday afternoon, scores of truck drivers gathered around the All Pakistan Combined Truck and Trailers Welfare Association’s office on Mauripur Road, calling for a ‘truck-march’ from Karachi to Torkham border.

Truck owners’ unions associated with the All Pakistan Goods Transporters Ittehad have been on strike since January 3, suspending supplies to Afghanistan. The bone of contention with FBR’s new system is that only licenced companies will be allowed to ship goods to Afghanistan. Transporters say that this will lead to the monopoly of a select few companies, which they feel will exploit them. FBR has issued licences to about 40 companies so far.

At the protest on Monday, the union’s chairperson, Mustaqil Afreedi, tried to pacify the mob of drivers. “We went on strike on your call and it will continue until we get our demands. If needed, we’ll block Maripur Road and cargo supply within the country as well,” Afreedi told them.

The union’s general secretary, Hanif Khan Marwat, said, “The custom bonded carrier system has enslaved transporters and the few companies which FBR has authorised are exploiting the system.”

He added that the authorised companies have no trucks of their own and around 11,000 trucks and trailer owners have registered with them. A truck registered with one company is not permitted to transport cargo for another.

“Companies take bribes of up to Rs 30,000 from a truck owner for permitting him to load another company’s cargo. If the company is out of stock, truck owners have to wait for work - sometimes for up to five months,” said Marwat. “It seems that these companies are the real owners of our vehicles.” He claimed that goods transporters are one of the largest contributors to the country’s coffers, but government officials - with the exception of Sindh transport minister Akhtar Hussain Jadoon - turn a blind eye towards their problems.



The truckers have demand edthat bonded carrier system be removed and the FBR chairperson resign from office. They also demand security for their vehicles and drivers from extremists and terrorists lurking on the roads. The truck drivers warned that they will suspend cargo supply within the country and organise a long-march of trucks from Karachi if the government does not listen to them.

Haji Khan Dill Khan Niazi, a senior vice president of the transporters’ union, said, “Our strike is peaceful but our union will not be responsible if angry truck drivers and cleaners damage government property.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 15^th, 2013.