The Kerala High Court has stayed for a month the operation and implementation of new Direct Port Delivery (DPD) charges and container freight station (CFS) shifting charges at the International Container Transshipment Terminal ( ICTT), Vallarpadam, for importers.
The stay order was passed on a writ petition filed by a few importing companies, challenging the decision to collect the new charges by the India Gateway Terminal Private Limited which operates the terminal at Vallarpadam.
The petitioners said that the operator of the ICTT had hurriedly proposed the introduction the new charges, overlooking the objections raised by all stakeholders unanimously. The new charges had no approval of the Tariff Authority for Major Ports. In fact, the Tariff Authority had sent a communication to the operator of the ICTT cautioning it that DPD charges and CFS en-bloc charges had not been approved by it. Though it had initially refrained from levying the charges, it was now insisting that the importers pay them.
They added that the orders issued by the operators of the ICTT levying charges were wholly illegal and patently without jurisdiction besides being ultra vires of the Major Port Trusts Act, 1963, and its successor legislation, the Major Port Authorities Act, 2021.
