'FFFAI, Nepal freight forwarders should collaborate for mutual benefits'

August 13, 2019: The Federation of Freight Forwarders’ Associations in India (FFFAI) has urged for greater collaboration with Nepal Freight Forwarders Association (NEFFA) for mutual benefits and enhancement of bilateral trade.

Speaking at the silver jubilee celebration function of NEFFA in Kathmandu on July 29, S Ramakrishna, chairman, FFFAI urged that FFFAI and NEFFA should should work together to disseminate the best practices of each country and that both the associations should boldly speak about the difficulties that each border faces and how to mitigate the same, by representing jointly to each government.

Ramakrishna also recommended that a meeting should be organised between India, Nepal and Bangladesh freight forwarders to discuss about inland waterways. He said the countries should give a joint proposal to all governments to extend the treaty, which already exists with Bangladesh, to Nepal too, especially for Jogighopa and Pandu Multimodal Logistics Parks to be opened in the north eastern India.

At the function, freight forwarders in Nepal expressed concern over irrational charges levied by shipping lines operating container services between India-Nepal route, including labour charges, additional surcharges and demurrage charges resulting in increase in logistics cost. In addition, congestion at dry ports and exorbitant registration charges to use the government’s cargo tracking system remain other areas of concern.

On July 28, Ramakrishna also attended the India-Nepal Logistics Summit which was jointly organised by Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), ministry of industry commerce and supplies and maritime gateway, in association with NEFFA.

The summit encouraged discussions on infrastructure developments, issues related to transit time between Nepal and Indian ports, warehousing facilities in Nepal, issues related to tariffs charged by logistics service providers and requirement of automation of customs and border clearance.