Under the guideline which allows shipping services to only registered shipping agents, Maldives Transport Authority has revealed that 21 shipping agents have been registered until now, for its services.
Regrading a complaint that has been sent to the People’s Majlis which calls in for investigating the counterfeit actions of freight forwarders, they have been called in for questioning at the Committee on Economic Affairs on 19th August 2020.
At the committee, transport authority stated that 112 shipping agents have sent requests for registration till 19th August 2020. In the new guideline for the registration of shipping agents, it is stated that if a good has been assigned for forwarding to a shipping agent, freight forwarder or a consignee, the fees that need to be paid till the goods reach its last port, needs to be taken care of by the shipping agent/freight forwarder.
According to the guideline, no fees shall be taken from the consignee directly or indirectly for other than the agreed freight. However, if the shipping document needs to be changed, a maximum of MVR 500 can be charged as an administrative fee along with the prefixed fee.
The guideline states that shipping agencies that act against it, will be fined with MVR 10,000 and will be warned to not repeat the action with a written document.
