The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a High Court stay order on a Department of Shipping (DoS) advisory that had asked the international shipping liners to waive their container detention charges on the import and export shipments during the Covid-19 crisis.
Chamber judge of the Appellate Division Justice Md Nuruzzaman, after holding a hearing on a writ petition filed jointly by Department of Shipping and Fresh Food Importers Association against the HC stay order, did not interfere with it, resulting in the order being upheld.
The HC stay order had come after a writ petition that argued that the DoS has no right to issue an advisory or directive to lift the charges of local and international shipping companies as these are fixed under negotiated bilateral agreements, said M Saquibuzzaman, a Supreme Court lawyer.
A single HC bench led by Justice JBM Hassan on June 24 handed down the stay order upon the writ petition filed by Bangladesh Container Shipping Association (BCSA) along with 11 international shipping liner companies seeking cancellation, of the advisory the DoS had issued on April 29.
In the advisory, the country’s maritime regulator asked the shipping lines not to realise container detention levies on the import and export shipments during the lockdown spurred by the Covid-19 outbreak.
It recommended the ministry of shipping take stern actions, including scrapping of licences, if the liners do not comply with its advisory.
The DoS, in its recommendation, said the licences of shipping firms should be cancelled for the violation of its advisory.
It said the port authority has also the power to release containers in favour of importers without complying with detention charges of the shipping companies.
It also recommended the government revive a section of the Bangladesh Merchant Shipping Ordinance of 1983, which was annulled in 1995 to avoid such a situation in future.
The Section 76 of the Ordinance stipulates that shipping firms submit the schedule of fares of certain vessels.
Usually, containers get free time for 14 days after the common landing date and thereafter, and then are charged between $5.0 and $10 per day as detention charges until importers take those back to the port or off-docks.
Local shipping agents’ lobby group said the vessels are staying at the outer anchorage and berth for weeks and counting millions of taka as demurrage.
Shipping agents have recently requested the government to waive some charges like port dues, pilotage fees, berthing and unbreathing tariffs, quay gantry crane, loading or discharging the container, storage charges, container and non-CPA equipment, and store rent for containers at off-docks, the BCSA said.
But the government paid no heed to its appeal and rather issued an order not to realise the detention charges, it said.
Notably, similar charges and fees of international shipping liners have been waived by the Indian government in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak.
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