KARACHI, Feb 7: Port and shipping experts claim that the foreign owner of three tugs operating in the Port Qasim for the last two years is continuously violating tender terms.
Therefore, $10 million paid towards charter hire be sought back from the Sharjah-based company, they said.
They said that the tender terms stipulate that the tug owner will be responsible for payment of customs duties at the import stage, but the owner, with the convenience of some Port Qasim officials, deliberately violated the tender terms.
Experts said that since tender terms stipulate that contractual obligation of hiring of these tugs by the Port Qasim would start after customs clearance, therefore, charter hire has been wrongly paid.
They said that these tugs are technically working in ‘free time’ and will continue to do so until customs clearance as per tender terms is completed by the owner of these tugs.
The experts said that a tug ‘Sharief Pilot’ owned by Global Marine Services of Sharjah arrived at Port Qasim on Aug 31, 2010 but as per customs requirement, they did not file the Goods Declaration in 10 days of the arrival which is a violation of the tender terms. Similarly, Sharief Verve and Sharief Alert arrived at Port Qasim on Feb 13, 2011 but as per customs requirement, they did not file the Goods Declaration in 10 days of the arrival. These tugs were also provided by the same Sharjah-based company M/s Global Marine Services.
Similarly, they said that the tender document clearly stipulates that the tug owner would be responsible for payment of customs duties etc at import stage i.e. customs clearance and would subsequently get the duties etc refunded from the PQA. As per clause 8 and 13 of tender document, it was also stipulated that the owner would pay all taxes, as per clause 8 of special conditions of contract, part IV.
Import arrangements and formalities of the craft will be completed by the contractor whereas expenses and taxes paid in lieu of customs, excise duties would be reimbursed by the PQA upon receiving original receipts, subject to compliance to the relevant rules and contractual obligations, experts said. It is interesting to note that under the execution clause of the tender document, on receiving letter of intent from PQA, the successful bidder would arrange for earliest inspection of crafts by PQA team, subsequent signing of contract agreements, mobilise crafts to reach place of delivery and after import clearance, should commence operations at the earliest within five weeks of receipt of LoI from PQA.