As part of the protest, the agents organized a pen down strike for half an hour on Thursday at all the customs offices. This affected the customs clearance procedures, delaying overall trade.[break]
Because the agents organized the protest in the early office hours, trading activities resumed only after 2 pm at Biratnagar customs, said a customs official.
“We actually had planned to halt our work completely. But decided to start with half an hour pen down considering the requests of the business community and the civil society,” said Prabin Joshi, president of Customs Agent Association, Morang.
He told Republica that the agents will, however, increase the duration of "pen down strike" by an hour every day, until the DoC withdraws its decision to induct new customs agents.
DoC had issued a public notice calling applications from interested parties for appointing new customs agents on December 23 mainly after traders complained that low number of customs agents in different customs offices created inconveniences to them.
Though the DoC in 1997 authorized a total of 490 persons to work as customs agents, officials said the number of active agents presently has dropped to just 220.
“Shortage of agents has mainly affected operations at Kakrbhitta, Biratnagar, Kunauli and Madar customs in the eastern region,” said the customs official.
The DOC´s decision, however, drew instant criticism from the Federation of Nepalese Customs Agents, the apex body of all the registered customs agents.
Customs agents claimed that their protest was not against induction of new agents, but against the DoC for not consulting the federation before taking such the decision.
“The Customs Act clearly requires the DoC to consult with the representatives of customs agents before taking any decision regarding such appointments. But the department flouted the Act,” said Bijendra Parasar, vice president of the association.
Customs agents even said that the DoC should issue licenses only to people who have worked as the agents´ representatives.
“New people simply lack the knowledge of how the job is done. On the other hand, we have a large number of people who have gained experience by working as agents´ representatives,” said Parasar.
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