KARACHI, July 16: The government is seriously considering to bringing about a change in the booking procedure of export consignments by freight forwarders and may suggest for the elimination of ‘house bill of lading’ which changes the title of the goods.

These measures are expected to be included in the forthcoming Trade Policy 2005-06, for which the government is seeking suggestion from exporters and freight forwarders’ bodies.

In this connection the ministry of commerce on Saturday called a joint meeting of exporters and freight forwarders for sorting out the issue. The meeting was chaired by joint secretary ministry of commerce Mohammad Ashraf Khan and was also attended by two officers of the State Bank.

The joint secretary asked both the sides (exporters and freight forwarders) to submit their suggestion which could help remove irritants being faced by exporters but would also ensure payments for the services being rendered by freight forwarders’ agents.

Mohammad Ashraf Khan asked exporters’ representatives to submit all such cases where exporters had suffered immensely on account of change in title by the freight forwarders on issuance of ‘house bill of lading’.

The chairman, KCCI committee on industry Naqi Bari while speaking on behalf of exporters informed the joint secretary that the State Bank Circular 23 of 1996 created this problem and once it was withdrawn the issue could be resolved to a greater extent.

He said that when this circular was issued, most of the shipping lines had raised objection and warned that it would create mess and a lot of problems for exporters.

Speaking on the occasion another exporters’ representative Javed Bilwani informed the meeting that shipping line or their agent (freight forwarder) issues a bill of lading where the name of consignee is converted and freight forwarder becomes owner of the consignment instead of actual exporter. Against this freight forwarder, he said, issued a house bill of lading to exporter, which had no legal status.

All this is being done in violation of the Negotiable Instruments Act. The bill of lading which changes the title and ownership of export consignments is sent by freight forwarder of shipping line to buyer (importer) who clears the goods without making payment and as a result of this exporter who is actual owner of goods suffers huge losses when payment is not received.

Mr Bilwani said that it should be noted that because of this fake house bill of lading the letter of credit becomes useless and has no legal value. Factually and as per Maritime Law the name of consignee in the bill of export is reflected on the M R and consequently on the bill of lading.

However, he said all this is bypassed by the shipping line in connivance with freight forwarders (brokers) as he is committing a fraud under a “Negotiable Instrument Act” by issuing a house bill of lading which is illegal.

Mr Naqi Bari also pointed out that freight forwarders (brokers) are not licensed by the government and are merely brokers and do not have any authority to issue B/L and their such illegal actions must be stopped forthwith because of the fact that our exporters are deprived of their genuine right and in the process become defaulters and for no fault of their own.

He also said that exporters have suffered huge losses as foreign buyers clear the consignments on the basis of B/L issued by freight forwarders without any payment. There were instances, he said, when foreign buyer blackmailed exporters and sought discount from 20 to 50 per cent which had been one of the major causes for slow growth in country’s exports during last 10 years.