Shipping association says may face worker shortage after Immigration Dept halts issuing guarantee letters for foreigners

KUCHING (July 25): The Sarawak Shipping Association (SSA) claims local shippers may face a workforce shortage after the Sarawak Immigration Department stopped issuing letters of guarantee (LG) for recruiting foreign seafarers to serve tug and barge (T&B) operators plying Sarawak waters.

Chairman Lee Kim Kwang told The Borneo Post today that without foreign crew members, local T&B operators will have great difficulties properly manning their vessels as qualified local seamen prefer to work on much higher paid offshore supply vessels or foreign-going vessels.

“It works like this, if a shipowner wishes to recruit a foreign crew, his shipping agent will issue an LG undertaking responsibility to arrange the said crew to enter Sarawak and make sure this crew will eventually sign-on to the named ship.

“The Immigration office will also issue a supporting letter to the LG to facilitate Immigration clearance at the point of entry, usually at the airport.

“Now the Immigration office refuses to issue the supporting letter for crew intended to work on board specifically for T&B plying within Sarawak. For other ships sailing out of Sarawak, Immigration could still issue the supporting letter,” he explained.

According to him, this was among the outstanding matters needed to be resolved with the authorities, especially the Immigration Department.

Lee said it was unfortunate the relevant authorities failed to conduct sufficient outreach programmes before implementing new rules and procedures.

He opined this would cause confusion and dissatisfaction.

He pointed out the sales and service tax (SST) over shipping freight between the Bornean states of Sabah and Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia has been exempted after strong requests from several peninsula-based trade bodies, but SST still exists on shipping freight for within Sarawak.

“SST is still applicable when you ship cargo from Kuching to Sibu/Miri/Bintulu and vice versa, but for shipping from Port Klang to Sarawak or Sabah ports, SST is exempted,” he explained.

According to him, the costs are being passed down to consumers.

“Actually, shipowners are just assisting the government to collect the tax while end-users and final consumers are the parties who are actually paying,” he said.

Lee added SSA will continue to work closely with the Sarawak and Sabah Shipowners Association (SSSA) and alert shipowners or principals promptly as frontliners when facing problems or contemplating new laws and regulations at government delivery counters.