Would the store rent waiver the next time finally decongest Ctg port?
The Chattogram Port Authority (CPA) has once more announced full waiver on store rent for all import containers that have arrived following the general holiday began since it desperately attempts to decongest the country's main port.
To get the waiver, importers would need to take delivery of the cargoes by May 4.
The first waiver has apparently didn't get the response from the importers, who seemed to have taken the benefit and used the port as warehouse.
The importers had earlier faced difficulties in taking delivery of the cargoes because of limited services made available from the offices and too little logistics, said CPA Chairman SM Abul Kalam Azad.
Since the working hours have been extended with sufficient staff in the offices such as customs and banks recently, importers would be encouraged by the port's store rent waiver, he said, adding that the problem would now visit a significant improvement.
About 44,492 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) of import load containers are lying at the port against the capability of 37,620 TEUs. And about 40 % of the import containers are for the garment factories.
The acute container congestion has been created mainly because of poor delivery because the countrywide shutdown started on March 26 amid the coronavirus pandemic.
On April 5, the CPA announced 100 per cent waiver on store rent for import containers that arrived through the general holiday, hoping such step would motivate importers to take the delivery.
Usually, there is no storage rent in the first four days. For a 20-foot loaded container, the port charges $6 per day in the first week after the free days and then $12 every day in the next week. From the 19th day, it charges $24 each day up to the delivery.
For a 40-foot container, the charges are double.
But seeing poor improvement to the problem, the traffic department on April 18 issued another notice, saying the benefit will be applicable for the containers that arrived after March 27 and the cargoes need to be recinded by April 20.
The next day, MA Salam, the first vice-president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, in a letter requested the CPA to extend the waiver.
Until April 4, the common daily delivery was 1,500 TEUs. It came down to 960 TEUs each day between April 5 and April 19, in line with the traffic department.
Following the waiver expired on April 20, the common daily delivery gained momentum and reached 2,700 TEUs in the last eight days.
Many port users, including shipping agents, were sceptical about the utility of the waiver.
"Everything depends on the importers and they shouldn't waste this second chance," said Bangladesh Shipping Agents Association Chairman Ahsanul Huq Chowdhury.
The scenario has changed this time around, said Anjan Shekhar Das, a director of the BGMEA.
Many factories have reopened recently and the working hours at the offices are also extended, Das said, adding that now many importers would expedite the deliveries.
It could take several more days to ease the congestion because so many garment factories are yet to reopen, said Khairul Alam Sujan, director of the Bangladesh Freight Forward Association.
Importers from Dhaka and other areas of the country are still facing delays in sending import documents to the C&F agents in Chattogram through courier services, Sujan said.
It really is taking three days or more to complete a release procedure at the customs, banks and shipping agents. He called for extending the waiver period by several days as many garment factories would reopen in a few days and they need.
