October 7, 2020: Maritime Association of Nationwide Shipping Agencies (MANSA) has identified issues pertaining to the implementation of Sea Cargo Manifest and Transport Regulations (SCMTR) in its recent virtual meeting with its members.
“A detailed submission has been made to CBIC (Central Board of Indirect-Taxes and Customs) and other authorities to facilitate in finding solutions for registration and updating the processes suitably, so that SCMTR can be smoothly implemented and become functional instantly,” said Hiren Ved, President, MANSA.
SCMTR norms makes it mandatory for shipping lines, importers, exporters and other custodians of cargo to comply with the regulations by, strictly adhering to the defined timeline for submission of cargo details that will arrive at and depart from any Indian ports.
The virtual meeting was an attempt to ascertain the preparedness of the members including mandatory registration process and it was observed that there were several gray areas to be addressed before the stakeholders could adopt the new regulations.
On their part, CBIC has been accommodative in extending the date for implementation of SCMTR in a phased manner commencing from November 1, 2020 till April 1, 2021 as a final stage and giving relief to the ship agents fraternity.
MANSA members also suggested a helpdesk, who can be contacted promptly by all stakeholders for seeking help of the ICEGATE/SCMTR teams at least during initial stage to attend to the issues quickly.
Unlike shipping lines, other vessel operators viz. liquid, bulk, break-bulk, Ro-Ro, ODS carriers, Tramp vessels, etc. have to submit documents for registration. instantaneously, which is way away from their regular job profile. There should also be a provision to change the name of the appointed agents in the submitted / uploaded manifest, by principals (vessel owners) or by the agents appointed by Charterers / Importers as per the issues raised at the meeting.
Whilst a great deal of work has been done, an enormous amount of work remains to be done to bring all stakeholders on board, per se MANSA members present for the meeting looked forward for a flawless introduction of SCMTR that will benefit the Exim fraternity.
