ICD owners for full handling of import cargoes

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Shamsul Huda The entrepreneurs investing money in inland container depots (ICDs) want discharge and handling of full volume of the imported cargoes coming through the Chittagong port to speed up both trade and port activities. President of Bangladesh Inland Container Depots Association (BICDA) Nurul Qayyum Khan said nowhere in the world, except Bangladesh, the port authority itself deals with cargoes. He said the government, having felt the urge to accelerate port activities, has devised the idea of off-docks and currently eight ICDs are handling the full volume of export cargoes that have reduced export lead time significantly. The BICDA president said to reduce port congestion the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) has written letters to the National Board of Revenue (NBR) more than ten times to hand over handling of import cargoes to the off-docks. "But the NBR, expressing the excuse of manpower problem, has rejected the CPA requests and they are still the authority in discharging imported cargoes and using the ports which has created congestion in the port", he said. Currently the BICDA members are dealing with 29 items of imported cargoes and cent per cent export cargoes. BICDA Secretary Md Ruhul Amin Sikder said due to handling of cargoes by the port authority itself 3,200 to 3,500 trucks, thousands of C&F agents and other related people enter into the port everyday. He said the current turnaround time of vessels coming to the port is still 3.2 days whereas in Singapore and other ports of the world it is only 24 hours. The BICDA secretary said despite repeated requests from the CPA the NBR has remained reluctant and they are yet to take any steps of letting the off-docks handle imported cargoes. President of Chittagong Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CMCCI) Khalilur Rahman said to accelerate port activities and maintain the Chittagong port's international standard image the authority should allow all the imported cargoes to be dealt by the private off-docks. He said in the off-docks customs officials remain present twenty-four hours a day and they do have all the modern equipment of handling cargoes from the containers. The BICDA president said the concept of off-docks was initiated in the year 1998 to shed load of the CPA and to reduce congestion and time. The currently operating eight ICDs remain unutilised, causing heavy losses due to low volume of cargoes and fall in export to the international market. Mr Rahman, also chairman of KDS Logistics, an off-dock, said nowhere in the world cargoes are handled by the port authority on their premises. Cent per cent of both the import and export cargoes are handled by the private operators in their off-docks. "But in Bangladesh, our port itself is handling the imported cargoes which is creating congestion and the ships wait for a long time in the jetties for unloading," he said. The BICDA president said, "Currently the off-docks are dealing with only 3-4 per cent of the total import volume in the Chittagong Port." Apart from dealing with import and export cargoes, empty containers are also being stored in the off-docks. He said more than Tk 40 billion is already invested in this sector by the private entrepreneurs and if they are allowed to deal with more import items, investment will be accelerated along with utilisation of the current full capacity. "We do have a big contribution to export earnings (US$ 20 billion in the last fiscal) as the private ICD operators are helping the exporters by investing their money and adopting high technological operation in their off-docks", the CMCCI president said.