Abu Dhabi: Indian expats in the UAE are complaining about shipment delays to their home country with many claiming their cargo hasn’t reached its destination even after several months.
“I sent home appliances and clothes to my family in June-end as Eid gifts. They are still undelivered,” said Abdulhaji Mannan, a Keralite office boy.
Mannan, who has lived in the UAE for 26 years, said he has always used courier services to send gifts to his family.
“Usually it takes anywhere between a week and 10 days. But this time it’s been more than two months and I still don’t know when it will be delivered,” he added.
Rashid Peedikaveettil said his 30kg carton has also been delayed for more than a month. “It contains milk powder, pampers and other baby products for my two-year-old son. I call the cargo company almost daily but they have no update.”
Smuggling fears
Cargo companies said the shipments are held up because barring New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport, no airport in India is accepting cargo from door-to-door couriers over gold smuggling fears.
“For the past few months, all personal cargoes are being diverted to the Delhi terminal. This is causing a huge backlog of consignments there, as they are taking weeks, even months to give us clearance,” a sales staff at Rajab Cargo told XPRESS.
“After getting clearance from Delhi, we have to use truck services or trains to door-deliver the goods to different cities in India.”
A comment from Indian customs authorities was not readily available. A.P., who owns a popular cargo company, said Indian airports have started turning away personal cargo after many were found to be concealing gold.
There has been a spate of illegal imports of the yellow metal to India ever since the Indian Customs imposed new restrictions on carrying gold.
Male passengers are allowed to carry gold worth up to Rs50,000 (Dh3,400) and female passengers are allowed twice as much.
A.P. said Mumbai international airport cleared personal cargo without any delay until four months ago, but it stopped doing so following a series of gold smuggling attempts. Cochin, Trivandrum and Kozhikode International airports in Kerala stopped clearing personal cargo even earlier.
“Now we are telling our customers that they should expect inordinate delays. However, in the past week, we have started clearing the delivery backlogs from our side,” said a staff at Seabreeze Cargo in Abu Dhabi.
