Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Monday, Jul 07, 2003
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Monday, Jul 07, 2003 |
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Industry & Economy
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Exports & Imports Exporters want Petrapole notified as land port Our Bureau
EXPORTS to Bangladesh, via the important Petrapole-Benapole border in West Bengal suffer frequently either on account of a truck congestion/detention or flash strikes by either transporters or whosoever has a stake in the area. Exporters blame the lack of adequate and proper warehousing-cum-parking space for trucks at the border point, and poor coordination between the various border administration agencies for the ills plaguing Petrapole. A section of exporters, while appreciating the efforts now being mounted by the State Government to bring about a semblance of order at Petrapole, has reiterated that the only permanent solution to the Petrapole problems was the setting up of a land port management authority. Exporters want Petrapole Land Customs Station (LCS) notified as a Land Port with an encircled area, and administered by a single authority comprising of State district Administration, Customs, Border Security Force, Customs House Agents and other trading entities, just as it is on the Bangladesh side of Benapole. One exporter told Business Line here recently that the proposal for declaring Petrapole as a Land Port Authority under the Foreign Trade Development Act was discussed in detail by a visiting team of senior Commerce Ministry officials, but nothing seems to have emerged till now. Now that more than 1,000 trucks are again detained at the border point because of the abysmally slow clearance of trucks by the Customs, exporters have again demanded that the Land Port proposal should be examined by the Central governments in consultation with the State Government. Petrapole-bound trucks, according to Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO), Eastern Region, have to go first to the Kalitala parking lot, which falls under the Bongaon (border town) municipality and then are allowed to proceed to the more spacious CWC truck terminal close to the border gates. Truck detention charges on a daily basis are taking a toll of some of the smaller exporters. Added to this, delays and slip-ups in delivery time lead to revoking of LCs and cancellation of export orders. Evergreen Marine Corporation has started moving its cargo along the US east coast ports after some four weeks. The resumption follows the withdrawal of charges by the company against the International Longshoreman's Association (ILA). The problems started in the middle of May when Evergreen challenged the legality of the strike launched by its port captains in Port Elizabeth in New York. The contention of the company was that port captains were managers and, therefore, ineligible for ILA representation and industrial action. The ILA had taken the side of the striking port captains. Many ships and thousands of containers were hit by the strike which spread gradually to Norfolk, Baltimore, Charleston, Savannah and Port Everglades. The overwhelming need to get the cargo going and put an end to the crippling strike prompted Evergreen to withdraw the charges.<137>
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