Congestion in Ctg Port
Feeder vessel operators realising surcharge despite stay order
Abdullah Al Mahmud, Ctg
Feeder vessel operators are still realising the surcharge what they said to recover losses stemming from the congestion at Chittagong Port, although High Court has stayed the collection of congestion surcharge.The feeder vessel operators said the stay order should not affect them. But the port users, particularly the garment unit owners, are opposing the views of the feeder operators. The port users are even planning to go for legal measures unless the operators comply with the stay order. Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) and Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry are also asking the operators to refrain from realising the surcharge. Five feeder vessel operators -- Advance Container Lines (Pte) Limited, HRC Shipping Limited, Orient Express Lines (Singapore) Pte Ltd, QC Container Line Ltd and Sea Consortium Pte Ltd -- imposed the surcharge on June 5. They enforced $130 surcharge on each container. The operators, who operate vessels on Singapore-Chittagong route, took the decision at a meeting in Singapore. Following a writ petition, a High Court division bench comprising Justice Nazrul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Zubayer Rahman Chowdhury on July 3 issued a rule nishi on the five operators and stayed the imposition of surcharge. The court asked the respondents to explain as to why the imposition of Chittagong Port congestion surcharge should not be declared an illegal levy and why the CPA should not be directed to take necessary action to restrain the feeder operators from realising it. "We are realising the congestion surcharge from none of the three petitioners nor from any importers or exporters," said Engineer SK Ghosh, chief executive of QC Shipping Line. "We are realising it from the Main Line Operators (MLOs) under contractual agreements which do not have any relation with the shippers," he said. MLOs, which operate mother vessels between Singapore and other international ports, realise the surcharge from the shippers through freight forwarding agents. When it was said that the congestion surcharges they realise from the MLOs actually come from the importers and exporters, Ghosh said MLOs must be overcoming their losses caused by the congestion surcharge. But SM Abu Tayyab, first vice president of BGMEA, said the court order is applicable to anyone realising the surcharge.
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