KARACHI, Jan 28: In a major move, country’s two primary ports -– Karachi and Qasim — are expected to substantially reduce their tariffs in order to compete with other ports of the region, informed sources said here on Saturday.

The sources said that the Karachi Port was going to announce a tariff reduction by 15 per cent within next couple of days, and the Port Qasim would follow the same immediately after the KPT announcement.

The sources said the Karachi Port Trust had already decided to reduce its tariff by 15 per cent and was likely to make an official announcement on January 31, 2006 in this regard.

In another development, Port Qasim Authority (PQA) Chairman Vice-Admiral Asad Qureshi on Saturday met Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in Islamabad and apprised him of the move being taken for restructuring and reorganization of the port.

Sources privy to the meeting told Dawn that the PQA chairman had succeeded in getting prime minister’s approval for taking far reaching structural measures, which would not only bring the port on modern lines but also help enhance its efficiency.

Mr Asad Qureshi, the sources said, had also got prime minister’s full consent to outsourcing of human skills of some major departments and section of the PQA, which was considered to be the main tumbling stone in the way of making the port dynamic, progressive and efficient.

The sources said that the PQA chairman suggested that initially the port should be allowed to outsource in sensitive departments like finance, planning and operation so that the port could be immediately made pro-active and efficient.

The PQA chairman also got prime minister’s approval for a tariff reduction. The prime minister was happy that country’s ports on getting higher volume of cargo are not only making more money but are now also in a position to reduce their tariffs.

It is said that country’s ports are among the costliest ports of the region and charge higher tariffs even being inefficient. However, lately both the Karachi Port and Port Qasim witnessed a changed culture but still a lot is needed to be done.

The prime minister was also informed that the PQA was not a dormant port and the factual position was that its annual cargo handling growth stood at around 10 per cent.

About a year back, the PQA reduced its tariffs by between 10 and 15 per cent. Its proposed future tariff cut is expected to be more than KPT’s reduction.