Chittagong Bureau :
The workers of Clearing and Forwarding (C&F) Agents have stopped the work at Chittagong Custom House for long three hours on Thursday. As a result, the regular activities of Chittagong Custom House have been suspended from 9 am to 12 pm.
Sources said, the workers and representatives of C & F agents stopped the work at the Chittagong Custom House protesting the show cause notice and cancelling the license of two of their leaders. They demanded withdrawal the show cause notice that were issued against their leaders and withdraw the decision of cancelling the license of the leaders.
However, the workers and representatives of C & F agents started the work at the Chittagong Custom House from 12.30 pm by giving ultimatum of three days for withdrawing the show cause notice and the decision of cancelling of the license of the leaders.
It may be mentioned that workers and representatives of C & F agents stopped the work at the Chittagong Custom House on April 5 and July 31 last for the same demands.
Mentionable that Finance Minister A M A Muhith on Monday underscored the need for taking ‘fast action’ by all concerned to ease congestion at the Chittagong Port and, thus, help lower the cost of doing business.
The Ministry of Shipping (MoS) organized the meeting with stakeholders of Chittagong Port as part of its efforts to ease congestion in the port, which according to businesses, has gone beyond any tolerable limit.The meeting also decided that banks in Chittagong Port area will remain open 24 hours as part of efforts to help run export-import activities in the port. The Ministry of Finance will soon ask the central bank to make necessary arrangements for keeping the banks in the port area open for 24 hours.
Port sources said outbound container-laden vehicles are also forced to stay in the port for several days, and they do not get adequate space to unload containers. “We need to develop the logistics platform largely. Space should be there, so that trucks can offload containers immediately after reaching the port. “
The finance minister at this point asked CPA chairman M Khaled Iqbal to cancel license of the private sector inland container depots, which fail to deliver services. “They are useless. We need to think about cancelling their licenses.”Any step to reduce cost is a great measure. Success will be there, if we act jointly. Anything can be turned into reality, if everyone acts.”
The CPA chairman in his presentation said ‘landlord’ port system will be introduced to reduce the port authority’s involvement in Chittagong Port operation.
He demanded declaring the port as thrust sector, exemption it from paying non-tax revenue, reforming customs scanning system for quick delivery, reducing physical inspection of goods, more off-dock in private sector, and review of tariff, among others.
The workers of Clearing and Forwarding (C&F) Agents have stopped the work at Chittagong Custom House for long three hours on Thursday. As a result, the regular activities of Chittagong Custom House have been suspended from 9 am to 12 pm.
Sources said, the workers and representatives of C & F agents stopped the work at the Chittagong Custom House protesting the show cause notice and cancelling the license of two of their leaders. They demanded withdrawal the show cause notice that were issued against their leaders and withdraw the decision of cancelling the license of the leaders.
However, the workers and representatives of C & F agents started the work at the Chittagong Custom House from 12.30 pm by giving ultimatum of three days for withdrawing the show cause notice and the decision of cancelling of the license of the leaders.
It may be mentioned that workers and representatives of C & F agents stopped the work at the Chittagong Custom House on April 5 and July 31 last for the same demands.
Mentionable that Finance Minister A M A Muhith on Monday underscored the need for taking ‘fast action’ by all concerned to ease congestion at the Chittagong Port and, thus, help lower the cost of doing business.
The Ministry of Shipping (MoS) organized the meeting with stakeholders of Chittagong Port as part of its efforts to ease congestion in the port, which according to businesses, has gone beyond any tolerable limit.The meeting also decided that banks in Chittagong Port area will remain open 24 hours as part of efforts to help run export-import activities in the port. The Ministry of Finance will soon ask the central bank to make necessary arrangements for keeping the banks in the port area open for 24 hours.
Port sources said outbound container-laden vehicles are also forced to stay in the port for several days, and they do not get adequate space to unload containers. “We need to develop the logistics platform largely. Space should be there, so that trucks can offload containers immediately after reaching the port. “
The finance minister at this point asked CPA chairman M Khaled Iqbal to cancel license of the private sector inland container depots, which fail to deliver services. “They are useless. We need to think about cancelling their licenses.”Any step to reduce cost is a great measure. Success will be there, if we act jointly. Anything can be turned into reality, if everyone acts.”
The CPA chairman in his presentation said ‘landlord’ port system will be introduced to reduce the port authority’s involvement in Chittagong Port operation.
He demanded declaring the port as thrust sector, exemption it from paying non-tax revenue, reforming customs scanning system for quick delivery, reducing physical inspection of goods, more off-dock in private sector, and review of tariff, among others.
