Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Ishaq Dar, chaired the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Inter-Governmental Commercial Transactions (CCoIGCT) on Thursday. During the meeting, the government approved a price determination mechanism for the outsourcing of port operations, which included various important bases for price determination.
The 12 bases for the price determination mechanism covered terms of the agreement, the life span of the terminal, maximum capacity to handle cargo, length of quay wall, royalty (per ton or fixed or gross revenue basis), land rent per square meter in the bonded area, storage charges, dock labor charges, up-front payment (adjustable), up-front payment (non-adjustable), and quantum and type of investment.
The committee granted approval for the price discovery mechanism in terms of Section-4(2) (b) of the IGCT Act, 2022, and nominated a negotiation committee to carry out the comparisons for the purpose of price discovery.
A committee will be constituted to frame a commercial agreement and negotiate the terms, conditions, and comparison mechanism for price discovery. Its recommendations will be presented in the next meeting of CCoIGCT for consideration and approval.
The CCoIGCT also considered a summary of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs regarding a commercial agreement between AD Ports UAE and Karachi Port Trust (KPT) for outsourcing the operations of bulk and general cargo at East Wharf, Karachi Port. After discussion, the CCoIGCT approved the price discovery mechanism and constituted a committee to negotiate and frame a commercial agreement for the development of a bulk and general cargo terminal at West Wharf, Karachi Port, to be signed between the nominated agencies of the UAE and Pakistan.
