KARACHI, July 20 The government is to introduce new legislation for regulating and licensing of ship agents and freight forwarders and other service providers in line with rules in vogue in other countries, official sources told Dawn on Tuesday.

The ship agents and freight forwarders have been operating without regulators and both got a sort of ceremonial registration with customs and ministry of commerce, respectively.

However, for over six months meetings have been held between different ministries to sort out the issue of handing over the responsibility of regulating ship agents and freight forwarders.

There has been a common complaint from the representative bodies of trade and industry that numerous charges by different service providers at export and import stage enhance their cost of doing business. They always demanded harmonisation of scale of charges.

Similarly, there has been a strong demand from trade and industry that in the absence of any regulator the unbridled activities of freight forwarders are causing severe damage to country's external trade, particularly exports.

During the course of a meeting held recently under the chair of Secretary Commerce Zafar Mahmood it was transpired that the draft legislation for regulating the licensing and operations of ship agents and freight forwarders will be formulated.

The meeting was attended by Secretary Ports and Shipping Muhammad Saleem Khan, chief collector customs (south) and officials of the trade and transport facilitation project and private sector representatives.

Initially, all the officials of the ministries kept shifting the responsibility of the licensing and regulating ship agents and freight forwarders on each other. At one stage it looked as if no ministry was willing to take the responsibility and wanted to maintain the status quo.

Sources privy to the meeting told Dawn that the ministry of commerce was of the view that on the activation of Shipping Rates Advisory Board (SRAB) by the ministry of ports and shipping the issue related to ship agents could be resolved.

Similarly, he said that the representative body of freight forwarders is registered with the ministry of commerce and the same ministry should regulate them.

Responding to these points Chief Collector Customs (South) Sher Nawaz said that under provisions of section 18 of Pakistan Customs Act, 1969 the main responsibility of customs was to collect duties.

Commenting on the confusion and differences between the officials of different ministries chairman Pakistan Shippers Council Rasheed Jan Mohammad said it appeared that various ministries were not within themselves very clear about whose responsibility it was to license and regulate ship agents and freight forwarders.