KARACHI, April 26: The KPT Board of Trustees in its meeting on Wednesday approved 15 per cent further reduction in ‘wet charges’ to be effective from July 1, 2006. This is the second reduction in wet charges which included port dues, pilotage, berthing and use of port’s tug in the last three years. The port had previously reduced these charges by 15 per cent in 2003, which was the first reduction in the history of the Karachi Port.

The meeting was chaired by KPT Chairman Vice-Admiral Ahmad Hayat and attended by seven trustees namely Vice-Admiral S Tauquir H Naqvi, Farooq Rahmatullah, Iqbal Umer, Dewan M Ayub Khalid, Dr Arshad A Vohra, Sohail Mansoor Khawaja and Dr Fahimuddin Ansari.

The cumulative effect of 30 per cent in ‘wet charges’ would benefit traders at large and make the port, which handles 70pc of the country’s external trade, more cost-effective.

Ships calling at port pay ‘wet charges’ in US dollars and, therefore, constitute a major part of the KPT’s revenue. Traditionally, these charges have always gone up and never scaled down.

After the downward revision of these charges, an average vessel of 20,000 gross registered tonnage (GRT) would pay less by 11.40 per cent thus provide a leverage to the consignee and the shippers for negotiating their freights.

Port authorities feel that this loss of revenue would be compensated by increasing number of ships and cargo volume. In the current fiscal year the number of ships called at the port rose by 239 so far over the same period last year and the dry cargo grew by 35pc and an unprecedented container growth of 25 per cent.