The Maritime Safety Committee of IMO urges the trade World over to adopt a practical and pragmatic approach when verifying compliance of the requirement for a period of three months from July 1, 2016
MUMBAI: The Maritime Safety Committee of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has modified its earlier order forcing shippers to inform Shipping Lines and Container Terminal Operators in advance about the Verified Gross Mass (VGM) of Containers before the cargo is loaded on to ships.
The Safety Committee of the International Maritime Organization has urged the trade world over to adopt a practical and pragmatic approach when verifying compliance of the requirement for a period of three months from July 1, 2016.
Shippers now declare the gross weight of containers only in shipping bills. The new requirement to Verify Gross Mass of packed container is being introduced at the instance of International Maritime Organization to prevent overloading of containers leading to accidents.
The Directorate General of Shipping in its circular dated June 24 said concerns have been expressed regarding the non-availability of adequate number of weighbridge for due compliance of the said specified requirement before the due date of July 1.
Factoring the concerns expressed by the trade, the VGM obtained from all weighbridges having valid certificates from the jurisdictional department of Legal Meteorology of the State Government/Union Territory will be accepted till September 31st.
The original notification stipulating July 1 as the deadline had specified that a shipper may submit the requisite information about weight of the loaded container in an electric format to the shipping lines and container terminal operators.
Noting that there has been inadequate number of organizations having a dedicated secure websites for this purpose, the DG’s circular said adding till such time adequate number of Dedicated secure websites are accepted, the physical format (hard copy) of the information pertaining to VGM will be accepted till the end of September, to facilitate the trade.
The DG Shipping circular also announced revised procedures after taking into account the concerns of the trade. The shipper of the factory stuffed packages shall submit duly completed Annexure-2 as specified in the said Ms Notice 4 of 2016 directly to DG Shipping along with specified enclosures.
The shipper is also required to enclose a copy of the extract from the Quality Management System (QMS) manual which details the procedures adopted for stuffing packages in containers for complying with the said Method-2 requirement.
Mandatory inspections for approval shall not be required to be carried out. However the DG shipping or its authorized representatives may verify compliance whenever required.
Since no inspections are being carried at the initial stage (three months from July 1 to September 30) no fee is required to be paid while submitting such applications. Fee will become payable only when verification is carried out.
