Jasim Uddin Haroon
An uncertainty is looming over transportation of marine cargoes to and from Bangladesh by the world's second largest shipping company - MSC - as the customs authority Thursday imposed a restriction on its local agent to handle goods.

Consignees and exporters expressed their grave concern over the development as it was likely to create a serious trouble both for shipments and delivery of imported goods.

This embargo will affect both in-bound and out-bound containerised cargo adversely, they said.

Export items supposed to be stuffed by the MSC carrier remained suspended at different depots from Friday after issuance of the customs order Thursday.

Customs authority imposed a ban on newly appointed local agent Marco Shipping for its alleged forgery in signatures. It (Marco) submitted a joint declaration needed for taking over from previous agent - MH Global Logistics.

The Geneva-based MSC carries nearly 10 per cent of Bangladesh's total external trade to more than 7,000 Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) a month.

When contacted, executive director of Marco Shipping Nazmul Ahsan told the FE: "We did nothing wrong. We scanned the copy of agreement signed in Geneva between MH Global Logistics and MSC and Marco."

Marco said imposing a ban on operation will affect the trade largely adding: "They (customs authority) should have allowed us until the final hearing."

Customs also issued another letter Thursday asking both the parties for a hearing to be held on June 12.

Sources at the licensing department of customs said they imposed the ban on the operation of Marco Shipping as they found a forgery in signatures.

"In our primary investigation, we found that there is a mismatch between signing date and buying date on non-judicial stamps," said an official of the department.

The date of purchasing the non-judicial stamps was April 8 last while the agreement between MSC, MH Global logistics and Marco Shipping was signed on March 21 last.

MH Global, a Dhaka-based shipping company, operated Bangladesh portion of MSC over the last three and a half years.

MH Global expressed its reluctance to handle MSC's Bangladesh operation following a conflict over formation of a joint venture company.

According to the country's existing laws, in case of forming a joint venture company, the local side must hold at least 51 per cent of the shares while the rest should be owned by the principal.

But the principal or the owning company often refuses to offer such a big share to its local partner.

As of the end of May, the Geneva-based main line operator was operating 450 container ships with an intake capacity of 2.22 million TEUs.