Calls to withdraw CTR surcharge grow louder

CHENNAI: With the shipping liners yet to take a decision on the withdrawal of ‘Chennai Trade Recovery’ (CTR) surcharge on traders using Chennai Port, various trade bodies have started urging the Chennai Port Trust management to take proactive role and persuade the liners to withdraw it at once.Going a step ahead from just sending letters to the port management on the issue, representatives of the different trade bodies, including the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) have met the port officials on Thursday to prevail upon them to regulate shipping liners who have been collecting hefty USD $200 as CTR surcharge from importers and exporters.According to traders, despite being served with a show cause notice by the port trust for collecting CTR when there was no congestion in the port, a shipping liner continued to collect the surcharge on Thursday too.Besides strongly pitching for regulating the shipping liners, the CII representatives who met the port officials have requested the port management to open additional gates with 24 hours entry and exit to reduce the congestion inside the Port.CII also urged the port to undertake the re-laying of 1.6 km road, leading from the port to S N Chetty Street (Kasimedu) running through the fishing harbor, to facilitate speedy evacuation of containerised cargoes to Ennore Expressway. Traders blame that the delay in evacuation leads to congestion and as a cascading effect, it also affects the shipping liners financially.Meanwhile, Chennai Feeder Operators in a statement said that they are prepared to have a dialogue on the CTR with the port management if they solve the perennial issues in the port.“We are prepared to have a dialogue on the CTR provided this is linked to improvements, namely, suitable gate access enhancement, at least two gates open 24 hours per day and the lanes increased at Zero gate to three each direction from the current two each way,” they said in a statement.However, port trust officials maintained that the representatives of the shipping lines have taken note of these developments and are now making a case to withdraw CTR to their principle ship lines.