S’wak shippers laud move to postpone bank guarantee rule
KUCHING: Sarawak Shipping Association is grateful that the federal government has postponed the implementation of the RM75,000 bank guarantee required of all shipping agents in the state.
Secretary Lee Kim Kwang said the association is pleased with the postponement recently agreed on by Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
However, he asserted that a notice issued by the Home Ministry would better assure shipping agents in Sarawak that the policy has been held back.
“For the time being, we have been only informed by SUPP ( Sarawak United Peoples’ Party) Youth Central publicity secretary Milton Foo about the implementation of the RM75,000 bank guarantee requirement being postponed.
“We have seen no official notice yet, and we do not know when the federal government will end the postponement,” he said when contacted here yesterday.
Lee said he was not told for how long the postponement would last.
“The Deputy Prime Minister is also in- charge of the Home Ministry, which is watching over immigration departments in the country. Since he ( Zahid) has agreed on the postponement, I hope the ministry will soon issue a notice on the matter.
“Once the ministry’s notice has reached the Immigration Department of Sarawak, we shall be better informed by the immigration ( authorities),” he added.
He hoped that the authorities would make the postponement official through a printed notice or circular.
State Immigration Department director Ken Leben could not be reached for comments.
Following the green light from Zahid, Lee said shipping agents in Sarawak would not have to come up with the RM75,000 bank guarantee even after the one-month grace period granted by the state Immigration
For the time being, we have been only informed by SUPP (Sarawak United Peoples’ Party) Youth Central publicity secretary Milton Foo about the implementation of the RM75,000 bank guarantee requirement being postponed. Lee Kim Kwang, Sarawak Shipping Association secretary
Department end of last month.
On June 29, Ken granted the grace period after meeting representatives of the association and Foo.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Foo said the grace period until Aug 1 was just a temporary measure to address the issues brought up by the association.
He added that SUPP would submit an appeal to Zahid, who was expected to visit the state.
The policy, which was supposed to come into effect from July 1, requires that all shipping agents in the country submit a RM75,000 bank guarantee in order to complete agency registration with the respective immigration departments.
Shipping agents who fail to come up with the said bank guarantee will not be permitted to provide any service.
According to Lee, the RM75,000 bank guarantee will be a great financial burden to shipping agents particularly those operating on a smaller scale.
He said the association was hoping that the government would consider waiving the bank guarantee requirement.
Some shipping agents in Sarawak did not have the capacity to fork out the huge amount given the existing volume of business, he added.
According to him, ports in Peninsular Malaysia are handling several millions of twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) containers per annum while the port here has turn- over volume of only about 300,000 TEU per year.