Despite efforts made by private terminal operators in India to prepare for the SOLAS amendment, which came into force on July 1, 2016, operators have expressed outrage over being shut out of the process of providing verified gross mass (VGM) declarations for exports to shippers, particularly those located at the country’s major public ports, according to JOC.com.
Captain Ashok Kumar Bhattarcharjee, Secretary General of the Indian Private Ports and Terminals Association, said: “The IMO guideline clearly establishes the need of a re-verification process once the container has been delivered to the port terminal facility. Currently, there are a lot of grey areas in this process.”
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PTI previously reported that the issues with implementations of the new rule were mainly seen on the shipper side, with shippers complaining that carriers and forwarders were using VGM declarations to increase revenue.
This was followed by news that 50% of online VGM submissions that were submitted via Kuehne + Nagel’s online platform and via forms in China were incomplete.
ZIM Integrated Shipping Services was recently announced as having been the most recent shipping company to implement electronic VGM processes.
