KARACHI: Pakistan Yarn Merchants Association (PYMA) on Thursday demanded the government of exempting demurrage and detention charges on stuck-up consignments due to not opening of Letter of Credit (LC).
PYMA senior vice chairman Sohail Nisar expressed deep concern over the not opening letters of credit (LCs) by banks despite clear instructions from State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), and he demanded immediately to release the detained containers of polyester yarn at ports.
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In an appeal to the federal government, Sohail Nisar said that a large number of containers loaded with imported Polyester Yarn were stuck at the ports, and due to non-clearance of these containers, the importers were facing serious financial losses due to heavy demurrage and detention.
Therefore, for timely supply of raw materials to the textile industry, Polyester Yarn containers should be cleared immediately and demurrage and detention charges should be waived.
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He added that the textile industry, which is the backbone of the country’s economy, the production activities were suffering from severe disruption due to the non-availability of the basic raw material Polyester Yarn.
The main reasons were non-opening of LCs by banks and piling up of Polyester Yarn due to lack of clearance at ports.
“The State Bank had issued a circular on December 27, 2022, in which the Central Bank had removed the condition of taking prior approval before starting any import transaction under Chapter 84 and 85 but LCs are not being opened by banks, due to which industries are facing raw material crisis.”
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PYMA Senior Vice Chairman suggested that the containers that had reached the ports should be locked, and those that have not been shipped should be stopped. If the government does not have dollars, it should issue a circular to all banks that after January 15, if yarn or any other commodity was imported, they will not get EIF.
Also, before procuring any kind of goods, if the State Bank permits, the goods should be procured so as to save the importers from possible losses and eliminate the uncertainty.
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Sohail Nisar demanded the government to waive demurrage & detention charges on all the containers stopped at the ports due to non-availability of dollars, and issue orders to clear them immediately and a solution should be found in mutual consultation with the yarn importers to save the textile industry from a disastrous situation.
