KARACHI, Aug 12: Secretary General Revenue and chairman Central Board of Revenue (CBR) Abdullah Yousuf on Saturday laid the foundation stone of the first IC3 programme under which all the containerised cargo destined for the US will be scanned. The system has the latest technology and is expected to be operational within next six months.
During the US president’s visit to Pakistan early this year both the countries agreed to implement IC3 programme in Pakistani ports to scan all containerised cargoes destined for US.
Chairman Port Qasim Authority (PQA) Vice Admiral Asad Qureshi in his address of welcome said that the PQA had allocated 10 acres for IC3 programme, out of which five acre would be utilised for installation of scanning equipment and the rest to be used as a yard for stacking export containers.
On the implementation of this programme at PQA, Pakistan will have an edge over India for having trade security measures in place. The IC3 programme is implemented in 42 countries around the world.
The pilot project at PQA for scanning of commercial cargo would be operational in six-month period. This will enable the authorities to check smuggling of arms, radioactive materials and narcotics to the US.
Above all, the implementation of the IC3 will reduce the cost of country’s exports to the US. Presently, all cargoes destined for US from Pakistan are transhipped to Hong Kong, Colombo and Salalah for scanning, resulting in delay and extra financial cost to the exporters. The facility will also help exporters to save time in meeting export orders placed by the US buyers.
Port Qasim handled 23.6 million tons cargo during 2005-06, which constituted 42 per cent of the country’s seaborne trade. The growth in cargo handling is at around 10 per cent per annum.
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