Export and import cargo handling activities of Chittagong Port are likely to face obstacles from this January following a decision of the ICD (Inland Container Depot) owners to review their rates upward by almost 100 per cent. Bangladesh Container Shipping Association (BCSA) has already expressed their dissent over enhancement of export and import cargo handling rates. Secretary General of BCSA Captain AS Chowdhury conveyed his standing in this connection to president of BICDA (Bangladesh Inland Container Depots Association) Nurul Qayyum Khan on November 30 last. The private sector container depot owners have, after five years, doubled their empty container handling rates and export goods stuffing rates from the first day of January 2016. Stuffing charges for export goods were reduced to Tk 3,000 for a TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) of container in 2010 from Tk 5,000 in 2007 while some charges were increased and some others remained unchanged. The latest decision of enhancement of different rates was taken in a meeting of the members of BICDA on November 12 last. As per reviewed rates the export stuffing charges will be as follows: stuffing package will be Tk 4,500 for a 20-foot container which is Tk 3,000 as per existing rate and Tk 6,750 for a 40-foot container which is Tk 4,000 now, laden ground rent Tk 150 for a 20-foot container as per new rate which is Tk 75 as per existing rate and Tk 300 for a 40-foot container as per new rate which is Tk 150 as per existing rate. As per new rate the landing charges per tonne remains the same as the existing rate at Tk 180 and the labour charge per carton is the same as the existing rate at Tk 3. The new rates for empty container handling are ground rent: Tk 150 for a 20-foot container and Tk 300 for a 40-foot container which are Tk 110 and Tk 220 respectively in the existing rate, lift on/lift off new charge is Tk 500 for both 20-foot and 40-foot containers which is now Tk 250, documentation fee Tk 250 in place of the existing rate of Tk 200 and haulage charges are Tk 1,600 and Tk 3,200 for 20-foot and 40-foot containers which are now Tk 800 and Tk 1,600 respectively. They argued that in the last seven years from 2005 to 2015 the charges of the ICDs have not gone up considerably, rather some rates went down while “all our operational costs and overheads as well as costs of investment inter alia the high interest rates of the banks or lending institutions have increased with time cornering all the ICDs in such a situation where mere survival of all the ICDs with a total investment of Tk 40 billion and direct and indirect involvement of nearly 20,000 people has been at stake”. The BICDA president wrote a letter to this effect to the Chairman of Chittagong Port Authority on December 15. He said thanks to handling of almost 100 per cent export goods of the country including annual garments export worth US$ 26 billion and 30% containerised import through Chittagong Port and storing a collective empty containers’ volume of 40,000 TEUs at a given time, the contribution of the ICDs towards the export-import trade of the country as well as the dynamic and progressive national economy is easily understandable. “If for financial sickness and lack of viability the ICD sector as a whole gets affected, the impact on the functionality of Chittagong Port and the national economy will be severe and irreparable,” he said. In reply to the enhanced charges claimed by the BICDA, the BCSA secretary said if it becomes necessary to review any rate they would leave it to their member firms to deal with the individual off-docks as part of their contract negotiations ensuring due respect to law, years of practice and the principle of equity and to the basic freedom of individual contracts in matters of business and commerce in Bangladesh and across the globe. He expressed the opinion that any pressure or intervention from BICDA that would impede the freedom of individual contracts would be damaging and counter-productive to the cause of mutual growth.
