Freight forwarders reject draft policy amendments

FE Team | Published: July 28, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

Doulot Akter Mala
A government move to bring the freight forwarding business under a licensing system has gone haywire following opposition to the changes made in the draft policy in contradiction to the one agreed by all stakeholders.
The government in an inter-ministerial meeting last week finalised the draft policy (licencing and operation) with some amendments which, according to freight forwarders, contradict with the earlier one agreed upon by NBR officials, joint forces and freight forwarders.
The National Board of Revenue (NBR), which was planning to issue a statutory regulatory order (SRO) on the policy in a short time, is now in a dilemma in the face of the opposition.
Two main freight forwarding associations opposed the move saying that the policy did not follow the decisions taken in the presence of government officials and freight forwarders on April 4.
They claimed that the amendments made to the policy in the inter-ministerial meeting went against the interest of the freight forwarders.
The freight forwarders earlier filed writ petitions against the freight forwarding policy 2006. The freight forwarding agents have been running their businesses without licence until now.
In a letter to the government, the freight forwarders have made it clear that they will take a move to withdraw the writ petitions after fulfillment of their demands.
They have also sought the draft copy of the SRO to see whether it is in accordance with the agreed draft policy.
The freight forwarders and the government, earlier in a meeting, decided to fix Tk 6000 as licence fees, but the amount was raised to Tk 20,000 in the inter-ministerial meeting.
The regulation makes it mandatory for a freight forwarder to obtain licence from the customs department and a prior permission from the Bangladesh Bank.
The approved freight forwarding policy also increased renewal fees to Tk 10,000 from Tk 3000.
The government has also imposed Tk 5000 as application fees, Tk 15,000 as enlisting fees for each station, which were not there in the original draft policy.
The government also dropped the provision of formation of an arbitration committee, which might cause legal complexities on freight forwarding and delivery, the freight forwarders said.
"We could not request the freight forwarders to withdraw the writ petitions filed against freight forwarding policy-2006 as the government is yet to officially inform them about the decisions of the inter-ministerial meeting," a government source said.
The authorities have informed the decisions on changes in the draft policy to Chittagong customs house.
Sources said the government should form a comprehensive policy with the consent of all departments concerned following the international rules.
It is not possible to operate transparent import-export activities under the international multi-modal transport system without participation of freight forwarders or cargo agents, they added.
Earlier, the government proposed the freight forwarders to form Bangladesh Freight Forwarders Association (BAFFA) merging the two associations --Association of Cargo Agents of Bangladesh (ACAB) and International Freight Forwarders Association of Bangladesh (IFFAB).
On April 5, a committee comprising ACAB and IFFAB, joint forces in Chittagong, customs and NBR officials, reached a consensus on amendments of the freight forwarding policy-2006.
But, it was changed in the inter-ministerial meeting later dropping some recommendations, freight forwarders said in a letter to the government.
They said some decisions relating to the draft policy are not suitable for freight forwarders to run their business smoothly.
The freight forwarders will not withdraw the writ petition, as they are yet to receive any draft copy of amended freight forwarding policy as per earlier discussion.
Besides, the government has relaxed the regulation of foreign and joint venture freight forwarding agents operating in the country, allowing them to repatriate their profit any time.
On June 7, 2006, the NBR enforced Freight Forwarding Agents (Licensing & Operation) Regulation 2006, which barred the companies from repatriating their deposits, investments or profits within 10 years.