ISLAMABAD: The government would make the Gwadar Port fully functional by next month (November) as necessary transhipment rules for bulk cargo are ready for final approval, sources revealed on Wednesday.
Officials of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, on the condition of anonymity, disclosed that the Gwadar Port will be made fully functional as soon as transhipment rules for bulk cargo from the port to foreign destinations are approved by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) as well as the Law Division.
“The government is leaving no stone unturned to make the port fully functional by November 2019,” the officials maintained.
They informed that a committee, comprising Balochistan chief customs collector, Quetta collector, officials of the Model Customs Collectorate (MCC) Gwadar and MCC Appraisement-West (Karachi), was constituted recently to prepare the draft of transhipment rules.
“The committee has forwarded the draft rules to FBR and the Law Division for final approval. The approved rules will be issued in the 1st week of November, 2019,” sources added.
According to a document available with this scribe, the Web-Based One Customs (WeBOC) module dealing with Afghan transit cargo has been modified while the user acceptance test (UAT) has been completed and configured with the system and is fully operational to deal with transit goods.
Similarly, the establishment of a new directorate at Gwadar has been initiated to facilitate the processing of transit cargo, destined for Afghanistan and China, in a more effective manner.
Transit of goods from Pakistan to Afghanistan has been regulated under the transit rules issued on 18th June 2001 (Sub Chapter VII of Chapter XXI and Chapter XXV of Custom Rules, 2001). The transit of goods from Gwadar to Afghanistan has been covered under various routes notified in the aforesaid rules.
The Gwadar Port is a deep-sea port situated on the Arabian Sea at Gwadar in Balochistan. The 637-acre Gwadar Port has an immense geostrategic importance as it is the entrance to the Persian Gulf and is considered to be a substitute of Dubai Port. It is also featured prominently among the 4,764 similar cargo handling facilities located in 196 countries around the world. Besides, the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), it is considered to be a link between the ambitious One Belt, One Road and Maritime Silk Road projects.
The port was inaugurated on 20th March 2007 by the then president Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf, who was accompanied by the then Chinese communications minister Li Shenglin. By March 2007, China had provided 80 per cent of Gwadar Port’s $248 million initial development costs.
In 2015, it was announced that the port city would be further developed under CPEC at a cost of $1.62 billion. The development was aimed at linking the northern parts of Pakistan and Western China to the deepwater seaport.
