Shipping agents asked to extend office hour to issue import delivery orders

Bangladesh Shipping Agents Association (BSAA) today called upon its member shipping agents to extend office hours from tomorrow to meet import delivery orders (D/Os) in the usual manner.

BSAA made the call in an urgent letter sent to over its 450 shipping agents following an office order today by the National Board of Revenue (NBR) instructing all the customs houses and customs stations across the country to carry out usual office activities in order to keep import and export activities uninterrupted, reports our Chattogram correspondent.

As the activities at customs houses are returning to normalcy, shipping agents also need to extend office hours, said BSAA Chairman Ahsanul Huq Chowdhury.

In the letter, the BSAA chairman requested the shipping agents to deploy required manpower at the offices taking proper safety measures to conduct issuance of import D/Os to the clearing and forwarding (C&F) agents for an extended period everyday against the current limited office hour.

Shipping agents have so far kept offices open for a limited period till 1:00pm every day since the shutdown began across the country.

The NBR on March 24 in an office order asked the customs houses to carry out office activities at limited scale during the shutdown through providing services for releasing only selected categories of import consignments including essential commodity, emergency medicine and service-related materials.

However, the move badly hampered the daily delivery of imports from Chattogram port creating acute container congestion inside, prompting the NBR to take decision within a week to widen the types of imports to be released.

As the situation at the port gradually deteriorated due to poor delivery, NBR today cancelled its earlier issued orders and asked to carry out usual activities at the customs houses.