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“Penalty for delayed Charges”

Penalty of lakhs of rupees due to irresponsible Clearing Agent

Kirit Nama – 18

· English

Mr. Dakshesh Shah runs a Snesh Resort Pvt. Ltd at Ahemdabad in Gujarat. He started a Water Park in 1996 the resort with 40 rooms gradually started developing. In 2018-19 he started constructing 60 new rooms in the resort.

  • Snesh Resort is very popular in its area. Mr. Dakshesh Shah decided to order the required furniture for the 60 new rooms from China. Accordingly he placed an order to one of the chinese company.
  • The Ship Carrying the furniture ordered by Mr. Dakshesh Shah arrived at the JNPT port of Navi Mumbai on 5thOctober 2019.
  • Snesh Resort had appointed Mr. Hemant Bhatia (Tulsidas Khemji Pvt. Ltd.) as their clearing agent for Custom Clearance.
  • The JNPT rule is that one has to collect their cargo within 14 days of its arrival.
  • Additional 7 day are alloted for collection in certain special cases.
  • Actually the Custom Clearance agent Mr. Hemant Bhatia should have dispatched the cargo till 19thOctober 2019 from JNPT.
  • After the arrival of cargo at the port the purchase of the Customer is stored in the JNPT godown.
  • The furniture of Snesh Resort was stored in JNPT godown by Tulshidas Khimji Pvt. Ltd. Company.
  • Incase the Cargo is not cleared within 21 days of the arrival from the godown, 200 dollars per container/per day is charged as rent or delayed charges.
  • Which means a container is charged in Rs. 14,000 per day. Snesh Resort had 5 containers as cargo.
  • After few days the clearing Agent Mr. Hemant Bhatia cleared 2 containers cargo from custom clearance.
  • Whereas the remaining 3 containers were still stored in JNPT godown.
  • As th 3 containers of Mr. Dakshesh Shah was stored in the JNPT godown he had to pay Rs. 54,000 per day from 26th October 2019 as delayed charges as each container was charged with 18% GST which was coming to Rs. 18,000 per container/per day.
  • Mr. Hemant Bhatia was giving various reasons for non clearance of the cargo to Mr. Dakshesh Shah like the Server is down, there is no network, there is some problem with the system, etc.
  • In this situation Mr. Dakshesh Shah contacted the BJP office bearer and Minister of Gujarat Government Shree Pradeep Singji Jadeja on 6thNovember 2019. In turn Shree Jadeja directed him to contact me.

Shri Vijay Rupani, Chief Minister Gujarat with Mr. Dakshesh Shah

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  • On 7thNovember 2019 Mr. Dakshesh called me and provided me with the entire details through message and requested me to contact the respective Custom Officer of JNPT.

Message from Mr. Dakshesh Shah

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  • On 8thNovember I contacted the following Officers.
  • Commissioner of Custom
  • Mrs. Pallavi Gupta, Deputy Commissioner of Custom
  • Additional Commissioner of Custom
  • Concerned Customs Officials after taking the details of the situation understood it and promised me to cooperate.
  • On 8thNovember Deputy Custom Commissioner Mrs. Pallavi Gupta called me around 11 am and gave an appointment to meet Mr. Dakshesh Shah.
  • Mr. Dakshesh Shah and his collaboraters met Mrs. Pallavi Gupta.
  • Mrs. Pallavi Gupta spoke to the concerned authorities and advised them to provide all kinds of assistance for custom clearance to Snesh Resort.
  • In 2 days, one thing was cleared that this situation was created not because of the Custom rules but was created due to the irresponsible behavior of the Clearing Agent Mr. Hemant Bhatia. The Customs Officials said that there was no defect in their system and it became clear that the Clearing Agent of Snesh Resort had not provided the required information to the Customs Department Officials at JNPT.
  • Snesh Resort submitted its application to the custom department with all the information, on 14th November.
  • Meanwhile in the 20 days i.e. from October 26th to November 15th, Mr. Dakshesh Shah of Sneesh Resort had paid Rs 50,000 daily demurrage rent / penalty to that shipping company.
  • Due to the delay of 20 days Mr. Dakshesh also had to pay Rs. 10 lakhs as additional rent.
  • On November 15, the Department of Customs, cleared all the goods of Mr. Dakshesh and at the same time explained him that he had to pay the additional Rs. 10 lakhs due to the lethargic nature and irresponsibility of the shipping company and custom clearing agent.
  • Deputy Commissioner of Customs, Shri Pallavi Gupta, advised Shri. Dakshesh to file a complaint against the clearing agent and the shipping company for appropriate action so that anybody else would not be harmed due to their irresponsibility.
  • Shri. Dakshesh had allotted his 100 room resort to a party for Destination Marriage which is supposed to be in the first week of December, which means that by the end of November, all the rooms of the resort have to be fitted with these furniture and ready for use.
  • Mr. Dakshesh feared that due to irresponsibility of shipping company and Custom Agent, the family who had booked the resort for their wedding would suffer a lot and also it would damage the reputation of Snesh Resort. Shri. Dakshesh was also worried about losing the rent for 7 day of the resort.
  • Mr. Dakshesh Shah and my Friend the Gujarat Minister Shri Pradeep Singji Jadeja explained me this situation which in turn was explained to the custom officials by me.
  • Deputy Commissioner Customs, Mrs Pallavi Gupta personally looked into this matter and helped out Mr. Dakshesh to come out of the situation, due to which finally on 15 November the three containers of Snesh Resort started its journey towards Ahmedabad from JNPT port in the evening.
  • The three containers reached the resort at Ahmedabad on 17thNovember 2019.

Message from Mr. Dakshesh Shah

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  • Now the work of furnishing the rooms with furniture will begin with full swing and by November 30, the 100-room resort of Shri. Dakshesh will now be ready for December's destination wedding.

Summary:

  • There are different types of people in the society like people refusing to take responsibility, shouldering ones resposibility to the others, cheating others for aquiring more commision.
  • Tulshidas Khimji Pvt. Ltd.
  • Custom Clearing Agent Mr. Hemant Bhatia
  • Whereas we also have people who understand the conditions of others and help the common man to come out of a situation, understanding the responsibilities of the general public's business, and  from time to time, helping the people by going out of the way.
  • Generally, we all think that Government Officials are irresponsible, and selfish. We all know that “selfishness does not help.” But in such cases, officers like the Deputy Commissioner of Customs, Mrs. Pallavi Gupta, are doing their job honestly.
  • Mrs. Pallavi Gupta has set a good example of how good can an administrative officer be. I thank Mrs. Pallavi Gupta from the bottom of my heart on behalf of the community.