Following the coronavirus spread, thousands of containers reported to be stranded around Indian ports, since their cargo documentations which provide the details of the goods inside the container boxes are in the closed Chinese offices.
Without the necessary documents, the Indian Customs Department cannot file the Bills of Entry (BoE) to clear the goods.
In fact, within 24 hours of a container’s arrival in a port, Bills of Entry need to be presented to the customs, according to the rules.
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For the records, shippers prepare BoE by containing information and details about the goods inside the container and then they submitted to the customs.
In case that the the document is not submitted, the consignees have to pay $70 per day for the first three days of the arrival and after that, $140 per day.
“Most of the documents of the containers that landed at the Chennai port are locked inside the closed offices of shippers in China. We are unable to file BoEs with the Customs to clear the goods. The penalty could run into a few lakhs of rupees if the cargo is not cleared in a few days” said to BusinessLine, S Nataraja, President, Chennai Customs Brokers’ Association (CCBA).
In light of the situation, S Nataraja asked the finance minister of India, Nirmala Sitharaman, to waive the charges for the containers, while the documents for the waiver will be submitted to the Customs Department for more than 35 containers.
Overall due to the coronavirus, shipping companies skipping Chinese ports and many Chinese factories are shutdown, while it is obvious that the trade market is passing a period of disruption.
