Apparel exporters seek complete waiver of demurrage on shipments

Apparel exporters on Thursday demanded the government for waiver of demurrage on import and export shipments of the sector for the period starting March 1 till the time lockdown continues.

The government has waived 50 per cent of demurrage charges on import shipments, Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) Chairman A Sakthivel said.

In a letter to Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, he said the council members could not clear the shipments on time because of lack of documents, "therefore, demurrage waiver may please be granted starting from March 1 till the time lockdown continues".

Highlighting the rule that cargo has to be cleared within one day of lockdown closure, he said the CHA (customs house agents), freight forwarders or consignees will face huge difficulty to clear the goods in one day, as it is "neither practical, nor possible".

Besides, he said there are a lot of export shipments lying at various Indian airports as all international flights have been stopped and the airlines are not ready to pay the huge demurrage to the terminal operator.

"The airlines want the agents/ shippers to take back their shipments after paying demurrage to the terminal operators. Therefore, demurrage waiver should be allowed to all export shipments as well," he added.

Sakthivel also flagged the issue that freighters and carriers continued to charge 4-5 times of the existing rates and this needed to be stopped immediately.

"It is an emergency-like situation and everyone has to contribute to ensure normalcy in international trade," he added.