PESHAWAR: The Peshawar Dry Port has been reduced to a parking area to the disadvantage of traders as hundreds of cars involving a legal tiff have been stationed there for a year.

According to businessmen, the legal wrangling between the customs collectorate and a group of importers has badly affected the dry port`s operations as it has run out of space to accommodate goods in trade due to the preoccupation of the parking space.

`Even small trucks cannot move backward or make a turn because the port`s parking space has been occupied by the cars, which have been stationed there for a year,` said a customs clearance agent, requesting anonymity.

Some 450 imported cars have been stationed at the parking facility of the dry port after the local customs authorities rejected them to qualify under the previous Pakistan People`s Party-led federal government`s amnesty scheme, offering tax concessions for the illegally imported vehicles.

Launched under a statutory regulatory order issued on March 15, 2013, the scheme was meantto raise the additional revenue for the federal government in a compromise to regularise the non-duty paid vehicles plying illegally on the roads.

The scheme turned out to be a hit as more than 61,000 vehicles were registered across the country, bringing over Rs15 billion revenue for the Federal Board of Revenue.

However, in Peshawar the scheme resulted into complications after some importers tried to take an extra benefit from the government`s SRO and imported vehicles to get them cleared under the amnesty scheme.

`The scheme was meant for the non-duty paid vehicles already present in the country, whereas Peshawar dealers imported vehicles to interpret the scheme to their advantage,` said an official.

Not only that they imported vehicles to take advantage of the scheme that was irregular, the imported vehicles did not qualify the country`s policy vis-à-vis the import of used vehicles.

`As per the policy, three-year old used/refurbished vehicles can be imported, whereas many among those imported by Peshawar`s dealers are more than three years` old, said a customs clearance agent, who complained that the preoccupation of the parking facility had negatively affected his business.

According to an official, after the customs col-lectorate refused to clear the vehicles under the amnesty, the importers sought legal remedy from the federal ombudsman`s office.

`After the importers got their stand accepted from the ombudsman, the FBR has gone into appeal, lingering the legal stand-off,` said the customs clearance agent.

He said the FBR should pay attention to the businessmen`s problems as the importers/exporters and businessmen involved in domestic trade had been experiencing troubles because the shortage of space at times brought the dry port`s operation to a halt.

`The customs collectorate has a warehouse at Hayatabad, Peshawar, where these vehicles should be shifted to save the dry port`s export operations from getting affected,` said Ziaul Haq Sarhadi, former vice president of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The customs clearance agent, who requested not to be named, said the customs authorities were reluctant to shift the vehicles from the dry port to their facility at Hayatabad citing the dry port belonged to the Pakistan Railways and not the FBR.

He said the matter needed to be redressed because under the law, imported items could not be stationed/stored at the government`s dry ports/dockyards for a period more than the legally prescribed timeframe.