KARACHI, Sept 13: A large number of containers loaded with export cargo worth millions of dollars could not be shipped on Tuesday because customs at Karachi and Qasim ports did not function due to incessant monsoon rains, official sources said.

The heavy downpour for last 48 hours almost submerged all the major roads of the city forcing public transport to halt. The attendance in offices and industrial units also remained negligible.

Sources said that on an average three customs collectorates - appraisement, automated customs clearance system (PaCCS) and Port Qasim - handle around 4,000 containers of export and import cargo.

Similarly, on an average these collectorates receive around 1,200 bills of lading (B/L) for containers with import cargo per day and around 4,800 to 5,000 B/Ls for containers with export cargo. However, on Tuesday not a single B/L was processed for import or export cargo, sources said. Usually, one container could have 5 to 6 B/Ls and similarly 50 containers may have single B/L. However, normally the number of B/Ls is higher in export containers because each box may include cargo of several consignees.

The containerised bulk cargo like rice, wheat, cotton is normally shipped in large number of boxes by a single exporter using single B/L, whereas items like fabric, garments are shipped by several exporters in a single box with equal number of B/Ls.

Due to total shutdown and non-function of customs offices around Rs750 to Rs800 million in form of customs duty, sales tax and income tax could not be collected. Sources said that in case of imports duty and taxes could be collected the next day when the cargo is cleared. But the delay in clearance of shipments is a big loss to the exporters, who have to incur extra cost.

In a situation when cargo is not timely cleared both importers and exporters have to pay heavy demurrage to the port authorities which comes to around Rs5,000 each per day. However, sources said that exporters incur higher loss because they failed to catch up with the shipping schedule and a large number of containers are shut-out and LCs face cancellation.

The exporters also have to pay the cost of containers movement in and out of the port. To meet the buyer’s delivery schedule the exporters have to bear an extra cost by sending the shipment by air.