KARACHI, Jan 9: The Karachi Port Trust is introducing electronic transfer system for collection of all category of port charges and with this, cash handling and payments will come to an end before the close of this month.
Officials told Dawn on Friday that cash collection and payments of port charges, including demurrage, wharfage and payments towards stevedoring, could be made through electronic transfer system.
"After the launching of e-business or e-fund the Karachi Port will become one of the few ports of the region to be declared as truly e-port," a KPT official said.
This e-business, under which all sort of payments could be made electronically, will not only eliminate unnecessary visits to banks at port users end and expedite revenue recovery for the KPT, but will also check corruption in the process.
KPT sources said that initially two systems of electronic transfer and payment of funds would be introduced to facilitate all category of port users. There will be a system that could be operated from internet and a port user will not have to move out from his home. However, the other system will be based on a swap card under which the user will have to visit a bank branch and use his card for making payments. But in any case, the sources said, both the systems ensure no contact with the port staff at any level for payments of funds. This will not only cut short the system for dealing in funds, but would also assist in eliminating corruption.
As a result of the e-fund the daily reconciliation with a bank will come to an end and a lot of time would be saved for both the bank and the KPT. Earlier, the KPT introduced e-wharfage to facilitate the payment of wharfage electronically without visiting bank premises. This ensured effective, efficient and transparent method of payment of the KPT wharfage charges.
The e-wharfage allows port users (clearing/customs agent) to have a choice of paying their wharfage by giving the transaction details at the Data Entry Centre (DEC), or giving the details through the dial-up connection from their own computers.
The electronic transaction (e-business) domesticizes work for the clearing agents by permitting them to lodge their wharfage from any computer by simply dialling into the KPT computer, picking up their indices, selecting the commodities, and emending any errors.
On pressing the submission key the KPT computer system prepares an accurate wharfage or other port charges, which is printed out and the clearing agent can now proceed to the bank and pay KPT dues as per this wharfage.
The sources said the e-fund or e-wharfage would help eliminate long queues at the bank and the KPT import and export terminals. "This will also, to a greater extent, leave little room for auditors' job as the system is foolproof with the exception that when there are deliberate or ill-intentions, there could be no error."