Air cargo demurrage-free period to increase to 124 hours

As some business owners complained about the high demurrage due to delays in clearing air cargo last night, President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu decided to increase the demurrage free-period from 80 hours to 124 hours.

During last night's meeting with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) at the Social Center, President Muizzu addressed such complaints, stating that he decided to increase the time before demurrage needs to be paid after discussing the matter with relevant parties from Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL).

"I discussed the demurrage deadline matter with relevant parties from MACL right here, and we decided that the demurrage deadline will hopefully be increased from 80 hours to 124 hours," said President Muizzu.

The complaint of air cargo clearance delays causing losses to businesses came from the General Manager of CPEX Maldives Hussain.

He stated last night that free cargo can be kept at the airport for 80 hours and that there are no arrangements to bring the cargo out within that time. Hussain also stated that as that is the case, the inability to clear all the daily goods that are brought in from the 12 courier services results in a hefty demurrage.

"Mr. President, just last month we have paid MVR 1 million in demurrage to MACL," said Hussain.

As per Hussain, he has spoken to MACL regarding what can be done for courier agents in expediting the clearance of goods. He also said that because the matter was not seeing any solutions, he had sent the same complaint to the Ministry of Economic Development & Trade, Ministry of Homeland Security and Technology and the President's Office as well.

Hussain stated that one of the solutions can be to turn Customs into a 24 hour service. He elaborated that due to Customs having only one machine to scan goods, it increases the time spent on scanning, leading to delays in getting the cargo out.

President Muizzu announced last night that, as per the presented solution, Customs service times will be changed from 18 hours to 24 hours.

Hussain presented a second solution, stating an arrangement where demurrage would not have to be paid.

"There is no space there. There is only one machine for couriers. Changing the fences or even increasing the space are things that will be quite time consuming. These are costly measures, as examples. Instead, the free time that is currently in place can be increased," said Hussain.

Speaking on behalf of courier service MyExpress and Express Shipping and Logistics, Ashraf Waheed stated that it would help provide more information and context to the work being done at the airport regarding courier and air clearance if President Muizzu and the relevant ministers were to see it for themselves.

"You will be able to see the state we are working in. How much time it takes for shipments to be released," said Ashraf.

A lot of people also highlighted their concerns regarding the government's delay in payments to companies. President Muizzu stated that he would release funds to many parties within the last two weeks of the year. The President also said that a solution will be brought about before Ramadan next year.