NAVI MUMBAI: The Centre has allowed exporters also to pay terminal handling charges (THC) directly to the terminals, bypassing the Shipping Lines, to cut logistics costs and promote Ease of Doing Business.

To start with, Jawaharlal Nehru Custom House, which serves Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), India’s biggest container gateway, issued a public notice to implement the new rule with effect from February 5.

Prior to this, the Government had allowed importers with authorised economic operator (AEO) status and those availing themselves of direct port delivery (DPD) facility for containerised cargo to pay THC directly to the terminal operators instead of going through the Shipping Lines.

The plan is expected to be rolled out in other ports as well.

Terminal Handling Charges (THC) are levied by port terminals on the Shipping Lines which, in turn, recover them from the exporters and importers.

Like in the case of imports, exporters have represented to the Customs Department that the lines were collecting THC, which are at variance with what the shipping lines were collecting, to pay the port terminals, resulting in lack of transparency in these charges.

“In order to bring transparency and to augment the ‘Ease of Doing Business’ and to reduce the logistics costs, it has been decided that the exporters having AEO status may be permitted to pay THC directly to the terminal operators instead of paying through the lines,” Mr. Sanjay Mahendru, Commissioner of Customs, Nhava Sheva -II, wrote in a January 28 Public Notice.